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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Late in the evening 25 of March 1999 of the year became a tragic page in the history of an Independent Ukraine, ending the life of one of the brightest politicians and dissidents — Vyacheslav Chornovil. The collision of his passenger car with a heavy truck on a dark road near Borispol, the official investigation called a ordinary accident, but this version immediately raised deep suspicions among the public.
Debates around them have not subsided to this day. And the shadow of that tragedy continues to hover over Ukraine's political landscape, for many of his supporters the death of Chornovil closely resembles a classic pattern of removing an inconvenient and influential opposition leader before decisive presidential elections. Have Ukrainians heard exhaustive answers to key questions, 24 History Channel will tell a little more.
Fatal maneuver of the KamAZ: how did the tragedy on the Borispil highway happen?
Around 23:30 25 March 1999 of the year, the Toyota Corolla in which Vyacheslav Chornovil was returning to Kyiv after a exhausting but successful business trip to Kirovograd (now Kropyvnytskyi), was moving along the Borispil – Zolotonosha route. At the wheel was Yevhen Pavlov — an extremely experienced driver whom the politician fully trusted. The road was empty — but suddenly, on a completely unlit stretch, a solid wall of metal rose in front of the car. It was a KamAZ truck with a massive trailer, fully loaded with grain.
The multi-ton vehicle was making a turn in such a way that its trailer almost at a right angle blocked both lanes. The Toyota's speed was about 110 kilometers per hour, and there was no chance for the driver to avoid the collision or brake in time. The impact was so devastating that Vyacheslav Chornovil and Yevhen Pavlov, who were in the front seats, died. Miraculously, only press secretary Dmytro Ponomarchuk survived — at the moment of the fatal impact he was sleeping in the back seat.
The reaction of the law enforcement system shocked the public with unprecedented swiftness. The very next morning, when basic road-safety and forensic examinations had not yet been appointed, then-Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko made an unequivocal statement — he publicly rejected any versions of an assassination, categorically calling the event an ordinary accident. Such a swift willingness of the authorities to turn a blind eye to obvious discrepancies became the first powerful trigger that pushed Chornovil's associates to launch their own independent investigation.
25 March 1999 — who killed Vyacheslav Chornovil: watch the video historyforadults_ua
Destroyed evidence, mysterious deaths, and the version of "finishing with knuckles"
As independent investigators and journalists dug deeper into the case materials, they found more and more glaring anomalies. Professional drivers and traffic-safety experts unanimously stated that the KamAZ maneuver contradicted any rules and logic. The truck began turning and stopped, blocking the road, exactly the moment when the opposition leader's Toyota was approaching. This did not look like a driver’s error, but like a classic, cold-blooded ambush.
Further, a real mysticism began to unfold around the case, typical of political thrillers. The main witness — a passenger of the KamAZ, Ivan Sholom, who could tell what happened in the truck's cab before the maneuver — suddenly died. The official cause was a heart attack, but later information appeared about possible traces of poison in his body. The truck driver, Volodymyr Kudelia, despite obvious fault for traffic violations, did not suffer real punishment — he unexpectedly received amnesty, and later the investigation lost interest in him.
Even more shocking was the handling of physical evidence. The crashed Toyota Corolla, which was the main key to understanding the accident's mechanics, was quickly scrapped — permanently making independent crash tests and verification of why the airbags did not deploy in a modern car impossible. But the most terrifying version was later voiced by former Deputy Prosecutor General Mykola Golomsha and the son of the deceased, Taras Chornovil.
According to them, after the terrible collision the leader of the People’s Movement and his driver could still have been alive. They were allegedly finished off with professional blows to the head by knuckles. This theory was supported by specific skull injuries that could not have formed from hitting the dashboard during the crash. But despite the family’s demands and the results of exhumation, the court system did not dare give this version official traction.
So what do we have in summary as of today? Legally, the investigation into Vyacheslav Chornovil's death continues — a court decision to close the case due to the statute of limitations was overturned by an appellate court in 2014 year. Yet those responsible for a possible ordered killing have not been punished. So this story remains an open, painful scar on the body of Ukrainian justice, because society still has not heard the final truth about how the death of one of the fathers of Ukrainian independence truly occurred.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Таємниця загибелі В'ячеслава Чорновола: чому офіційна версія про ДТП досі викликає сумніви". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.
