Former police officer accused of murdering 5-year-old Kyrylo Tlyavov in Pereyaslav mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Former police officer Ivan Prykhodko, who is accused of the negligent killing of five-year-old Kyrylo Tlyavov in Pereyaslav (Kyiv region) seven years ago, was drafted into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Because of this, his defense is asking for the appeal hearing of the case to be completely stopped or paused.

This was confirmed to Suspilne by Prykhodkoʼs lawyer Viktor Chevhuz.

According to him, Prykhodko was mobilized by representatives of the TRC on March 19 right off the street. Despite the birth of his third child, he did not apply for a deferment from military service. Currently, Prykhodko is in the Donetsk region as part of one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, probably in a separate battalion of unmanned systems.

In the case of the murder of five-year-old Kyrylo Tlyavov, the verdict was handed down back in 2023 — then the court acquitted three suspects, but Prykhodko received four years in prison. He had already served three and a half years while the case was being considered.

The case is currently being considered in the appellate instance. The last hearing in the Kyiv Court of Appeals was held on June 5 of this year. At that time, lawyer Prykhodko provided the court with a certificate signed by the commander of the military unit confirming his clientʼs enlistment in the army.

Prosecutors in the courtroom requested that the hearing be suspended for a month to confirm the fact of Prykhodkoʼs mobilization and to determine whether the terms of service would allow the defendant to join the hearings, including online.

Now the regional prosecutorʼs office will send a request to the Ministry of Defense and find out whether Ivan Prykhodko is actually serving and whether he will be able to join the sessions. Then the Kyiv Court of Appeal will decide: to continue the hearing, suspend the proceedings regarding Prykhodko alone, or put the entire case on hold until the end of the war.

The representative of the Tlyavov family Elvira Lazarenko stated that the mobilization of Prykhodko is an attempt to avoid responsibility. According to her, the Tlyavov representatives will submit an appeal to the Ministry of Defense and the military unit with a request to cancel the order to mobilize Prykhodko.

The murder of Kyrylo Tlyavov in Pereyaslav

On May 31, 2019, in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi (Kyiv region), two law enforcement officers — Ivan Prykhodko and Volodymyr Petrovets — “aimed” a gun, one bullet hitting the yard where a five-year-old boy Kyrylo Tlyavov was playing.

The child was taken to the hospitalʼs intensive care unit with a closed head injury, brain contusion, intracerebral hematoma, and a fractured temporal bone. The child died on June 3.

The National Police noted that as a result of the investigation into the murder of Tlyavov, 12 police officers were held accountable, and six heads of the district police department were dismissed from their positions.

On May 25, 2023, former police officer Ivan Prykhodko was sentenced to four years in prison. Another former law enforcement officer Volodymyr Petrovets was sentenced to two years probation for keeping ammunition. Two other defendants in the case — Dmytro Kryvoshey and Stanislav Petrovets, who was a minor at the time of the crime — were acquitted by the court.

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