Vita Zaverukha
Native name	Ukrainian: Вікторія Ігорівна Заверуха
Birth name	Victoria Ihorivna Zaverukha
Born	1996 (age 27–28) Vinnytsia, Ukraine
Allegiance	Aidar
Years of service	2014 – 2015

Victoria Ihorivna Zaverukha (Ukrainian: Вікторія Ігорівна Заверуха), better known as Vita Zaverukha, is an Ukrainian nationalist militant and ex-serviceman of the volunteer battalion Aidar. Following Elle France's publication in 2014 of an article on pro-government female fighters in the war in Donbas, she became known for publishing neo-Nazi content on social media.^[1][2] In 2015, she was arrested on charges of participating in a robbery in Kyiv that resulted in the death of two policemen of the Berkut special force.^[3] A public campaign for her liberation developed from nationalist right-wing circles.^[4] She was released on bail in 2017^[5] and later acquitted.^[6] She resumed her participation in the actions of the Ukrainian radical right^[1] and, following the 2022 Russian invasion, it was reported that she had joined the territorial defense near Kyiv.^[6]

Biography

Zaverukha joined Euromaidan and took part in the storming of the Vinnytsia regional state administration in January 2014.^[7] She did not belong to any organisation but was active in the area of the far-right and the Right Sector.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). In France and elsewhere, she became known following the the publication in the French magazine Elle, on 14 November 2014, of a report on women in the armed conflict in Donbas, in which Zaverukha was interviewed and photographed.^[2][8] At the end of December 2014, the Ukrainian-American pianist Valentina Lisitsa discovered that Zaverukha had posted images of herself making the Nazi salute and wearing a swastika.^[9][2] Faced with numerous criticisms on social media, Elle's editorial board issued a statement on 30 December saying that it was "shocked" by the news of Zaverukha's neo-Nazi background and condemned any xenophobic, antisemitic, racist and Nazi ideology.^[2][1][10]

In April 2015 Zaverukha was arrested on charges of participating in an armed robbery at a gas station that had taken place on 4 May 2015 in Kyiv.^[11] Reportredly, the police had chased the car carrying a group of robbers from a petrol station. A shootout ensued, and two policemen were killed and three wounded. One robber died, two escaped but were arrested some time later. One of them confessed on camera that Zaveruha had participated in the robbery. Allegedly, the group was preparing a terrorist attack in Kyiv.^[12] Following the arrest, Zaverukha and the others arrested claimed that they were subjected to torture.^[13][14]

According to investigators, the robbery was carried out by far-right activists and former volunteers of the Aidar, Tornado and Azov battalions.^[11][15] Since the victims belonged to a police special force (Berkut) that had been responsible for violence against Automaidan in January 2014, the supporters of the arrested regarded the killers not as criminals, but as avengers of the people, and believed that the robbery at the gas station was a police set-up.^[4][16] In September 2015, the website of the right-wing organisation Tryzub reported that Zaverukha had been awarded the medal "For sacrifice and love for Ukraine" by the Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret.^[17] The information was confirmed by Zaverukha's lawyer but not by the Kyiv Patriarchate.^[18] Court hearings in her case were repeatedly postponed, picketed and disrupted, and in November 2016 a people's deputy from Popular Front, Yuriy Tymoshenko, handcuffed himself to Zaverukha during a courtroom hearing and warned that any attempt to remove the wrist bracelets would have been regarded as an attack on the deputy's immunity.^[19][12]

In January 2017 Zaverukha was released on bail (3.6 million hryvnias) paid by Oleksiy Tamrazov^[5][4] and later acquitted of all charges.^[6] In Februay she and her husband Oles Chernyak were beaten by members of their own political group C14, which had supported the campaign for their release.^[12]

In July 2017 Zaverukha and her partner were involved in an attack on transgender activists in Kyiv.^[1][20] In 2020, a human rights report by the US State Department stated that Vita Zaverukha and other activists of the Unknown Patriot group were among the suspects in an attack on participants of the 8 March women's rights rally.^[21]

Reportedly, in March 2022 she had joined the territorial defense near Kyiv.^[6]

References