# Dmytro Kukharchuk

Dmytro Vasylovych Kukharchuk (Ukrainian: Дмитро Васильович Кухарчук; born 4 June 1990) is a Ukrainian politician, member of the Supreme Council of the political party National Corps, political prisoner in the so-called case of Cherkasy veterans and commander of the second battalion of the 3rd Assault Brigade.

## Biography

He was born June 4, 1990, in Vinnytsia. He graduated Cherkasy National University, received a bachelor's degree in philosophy. He later worked as a freelance journalist. At the turn of the 2000s and 2010s, he actively participated in the activities of the Ultras movement in Cherkasy.
Active participant Revolution of Dignity, took part in the storming of the Cherkasy Regional State Administration and 2014 Hrushevskoho Street riots in Kyiv.
In the spring of 2014 he became a volunteer Azov Battalion. He took part in fighting in eastern Ukraine, in particular in Battle of Marinka, Battle of Ilovaisk and Shyrokyne standoff.
In an interview with Armiya TV in June 2024, he said that numerous times during the war, the Azov Brigade had been used as "Motivational troops", a euphemism for barrier troops. He then gave a detailed account of an instance of his unit being used as barrier troops in 2022 saying, "We were motivational troops then. We then helped the 110th brigade of the TRO. I can't say anything bad about them, because for a TRO they fought quite well, but, again, as a TRO they had to be motivated. And then my detachment—I was then the commander of a detachment of 500 men—was evenly distributed along a 25-kilometer line..."

## Political activity

Since 2016 he has been a member of the Supreme Council of the political party National Corps, heads the Cherkasy regional branch of the party. He worked as an assistant on a voluntary basis for the deputy Andriy Biletsky.
In January 2018, he organized the blocking of the rostrum at the session Cherkasy City Council, which 4 times in a row could not approve the budget. As a result of the blockade, there was a significant media resonance and the budget was approved.
In 2019, he ran for 9th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada as a self-nominated candidate and member of the National Corps party in the Electoral District 194 constituency.
In March 2019, he took part in the actions of the National Corps against President Petro Poroshenko (also known as the "campaign against pig farmers"). He was the organizer and direct participant in the blockade of the presidential motorcade in Cherkasy. Kukharchuk was detained during the rally.
On September 25, 2020, the TEC was registered as a candidate for Cherkasy mayor from the National Corps party. He took the third place.

## Political imprisonment

On August 14, 2021, he took part in a National Corps protest on Bankova Street, during which clashes with National Police of Ukraine took place. A criminal case (the so-called "Cherkasy Veterans Case") was opened against the most active participants in those events (including Dmytro Kukharchuk).
On August 30, 2021, Pechersk District Court of Kyiv remanded in custody (without bail) as a precautionary measure for Dmytro Kukharchuk and Oleg Dovbysh (also a veteran Azov Regiment, leader of the Cherkasy movement Ultras).
Shortly before that, Dmytro Kukharchuk publicly cut his arm veins near the Pechersk Police Department in protest of the "persecution of veterans."
The National Corps calls the detention of "Cherkasy veterans" political repression against their political force.
In September 2021, while in pre-trial detention, he became a candidate for People's Deputies in 197 constituencies in Cherkasy region.