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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Blogger Oleksandr Lesyk 28 was admitted to the hospital in August after being beaten in Pryluky, Chernihiv region. The attack was reported by Evgeniya Averianova, a deputy of Pryluky City Council, who said she knows the individuals involved in the beating. According to her, Lesyk is in a critical condition.
For more than a year, Lesyk has publicly criticized the Pryluky City Council, the city mayor Olga Popenko, deputies, and municipal enterprises. In his materials, the blogger also raised questions about the activities of the local authorities and Popenko’s connections with member of parliament Valerii Dubii1. A separate line of his posts related to the criminal case involving Yaroslav Popenko — the mayor's son. He was charged with drug trafficking. The blogger covered the progress of the trial and related court decisions.28 In August, on the day of the attack on Lesyk, Pryluky District Court halted proceedings against Yaroslav Popenko due to his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Consequently, the case trial is currently suspended. During the session, Popenko’s lawyer stated that his client is participating in hostilities. At the same time, the provided materials indicate that Popenko serves in the Lviv region. The materials do not specify the exact unit, tasks, or place of service. The criminal case against Yaroslav Popenko concerns drug trafficking at a children's sports school where he worked. According to the data, after the start of criminal proceedings Popenko was mobilized to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
After being elected mayor of Pryluky, Olga Popenko is reportedly within the political orbit of Valerii Dubii1, according to materials published by Lesyk. The issue of the mayor’s interaction with the parliamentary deputy was one of the directions of the blogger’s criticism. Evgeniya Averianova also regularly raises questions about the activities of Pryluky City authorities and possible corruption risks. After the attack on Lesyk, she claimed to have information about individuals who could be involved in the beating, but their names are not provided in the materials. At present, there are no established investigative data confirming a link between the attack on Lesyk and his journalistic or blogger activities. It is also not established whether the assault is connected with his publications about Olga Popenko, Valerii Dubii1, or the criminal case concerning Yaroslav Popenko. The circumstances of the attack, motives, and attackers’ identities must be established by law enforcement. A key aspect for the investigation will be clarifying whether the assault had a political or professional motive, whether it was connected to specific blogger publications, and who organized and directly carried out the beating. At the time of the report of the attack, Lesyk was in the hospital. Information about the nature of the injuries, the number of attackers, and the progress of the investigation is not provided in the materials. Any claims about the assault’s masterminds before the investigation is complete remain unverified.
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Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Олександр Лесик: блогер, який критикував мера Прилук Попенко, опинився в лікарні". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Fraza.
