Oleh Vedmedenko was born in Lutsk on 18 September 1961. In 1997 he founded the Bible School of Spiritual Perfection at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, was consecrated bishop in 2012, headed the Volyn and Galicia Eparchy from 2013, and served as primate of the UNAPC from 2015 to 2019. He was rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Lutsk, a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, and author of several books. For the Lutsk community he was not only a spiritual mentor but also a man who remained in the city's public eye for years.
Roman Savych, a young driver from the village of Zhydychyn, had been known to the courts long before the accident. In the summer of 2020 he attacked Lutsk municipal guards with a gas canister and received three years of restricted freedom under Part 2 of Article 350 of the Criminal Code. The Volyn Court of Appeal upheld the sentence on 19 October 2021, but the punishment was never carried out. A few weeks later came the accident that killed the bishop.
On 14 November 2021, at around 21:00–22:00, Savych was driving his wife's Mazda 6 when he mounted the pavement on Vasyl Moisei Avenue and struck the 60-year-old Vedmedenko. On the morning of 15 November, the bishop died in Lutsk City Clinical Hospital. The investigation classified the incident under Part 3 of Article 286-1, and the driver was detained under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code. On 16 November, Lutsk City and District Court judge Alla Paliushko ordered him held in custody for 60 days without bail. That same day a memorial service was held at the church, and the funeral took place in the churchyard.
The case continued in December. On 17 December 2021, video of the moment of the accident emerged, and on 24 December the investigation concluded, with Part 1 of Article 135 on knowingly leaving a person in danger added to the charges. On 10 January 2022, judge Ihor Yaselskyi extended the detention until 10 March without bail. It was this article that became the main point of contention at the 7 February hearing.
The Driver's Version
Savych admitted he had caused the traffic accident but insisted he did not see the pedestrian. According to him, the car spun 180 degrees, and after the impact he was in shock and walked to the security booth of the Promin shopping centre car park to call the police, since his phone had been smashed. Had he seen a person, he would have helped, he told the court. He had started drinking around one in the afternoon at a birthday party, then slept, argued with his wife in the evening, and drove to his parents in her car, not realising he was still drunk. He said he had not significantly exceeded the speed limit.
The driver's account conflicts with the family's story. The son of the deceased, priest Vasyl Vedmedenko, said the family had been called by the police from his father's phone, and his mother initially thought it was a scam. The phone, he said, was found thrown aside at the scene of the impact. Earlier, as Volyn Post reported, Savych's lawyer had promised full admission of guilt, but then the defence counsel was replaced, and the new lawyer took a different position.
Video and Witnesses
The family's lawyer, Roman Khomych, relies on the video recording. According to his description, the car hits the kerb, the driver remains in the area illuminated by the headlights and must have seen the pedestrian. Then he gets out of the car and, as the video shows, 'calmly walks towards the car park.' Khomych also noted that witnesses called the police about five times, and none of those calls was made by Savych. When those who detained him asked whether he had hit the person, the driver said nothing.
At the hearing on 11 February, as reported in Volyn News, the eyewitnesses themselves gave testimony. Lawyer Ihor Vasyliuk was in the funeral home nearby and heard the impact at around 21:00. He saw a man walking away and held him until the police arrived, tripping him up. Lutsk resident Maksym Olishchuk found the victim about 15 metres from the car and called the police. According to him, the detainee resisted and asked for a cigarette:
'The police put handcuffs on him, he struggled and asked for a cigarette.'
The expert examination gave the cause of death as blunt trauma complicated by traumatic shock. The hearing in the case will continue on 18 February 2022, and it is then that the court will examine how far Savych's version of not being aware of the pedestrian matches the video recording and the testimony of eyewitnesses.
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