Peopleʼs Deputy "Servants of the People" and a collaborator Oleksiy Kovaliov, who is in the occupied territory of Kherson oblast, first appeared on video after the assassination attempt. A video with him was published by the Russian propaganda publication RIA on June 30.
He called the assassination attempt a "sabotage of the Ukrainian secret services" and also said that he would return to work on Monday and continue working in his constituency — "until the end of my term in 2023."
On June 22, in the occupied part of the Kherson region, in the town of Hola Prystan, Kovaliov was assassinated and his car was blown up. The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanova, confirmed that "a certain action" had been taken against Kovaliov.
Who is Oleksiy Kovaliov?
This is a Peopleʼs Deputy of Ukraine, who in 2019 was elected in one of the districts of Kherson oblast. In parliament, he was a member of the Servant of the People faction and a member of the Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Committee. After the start of a large-scale war, Kovalev went to the occupied Kherson oblast. On June 8, he was charged with collaborationism. The State Bureau of Investigation stated that Kovaliov-controlled enterprises supply food to the temporarily occupied Crimea and sell it in Russia.
The Servant of the People party expelled him from its faction and appealed to the Verkhovna Rada to deprive Kovaliov of his mandate and called on the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office and the Security Service to take Kovaleioʼs case to court as soon as possible and confiscate his property and assets.