Ukraine’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies have signed a funding deal with a foundation run by a former leader of the neo-Nazi Right Sector group.
Sergey Sternenko has faced allegations of drug trafficking and murder and was convicted in a kidnapping case.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have played a dual role, combating government graft while also serving as a means of exerting pressure on Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and his inner circle, RT’s Murad Gadziev reports.
Last week, NABU and SAPO signed an agreement to channel funds seized in corruption cases to the Sternenko Community Foundation. The organization has supplied drones to Ukraine’s notorious ultranationalist Azov unit.
Sternenko rose to prominence during the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014, when he discovered the influence that could be wielded through violence, according to Gadziev.
“I did, of course, go to the Maidan, and it changed my life completely. I realized that ever since 2014, I have definitely not been living in vain,” Sternenko told media in 2019.
From 2014 to 2017, Sternenko headed the Odessa branch of Right Sector, a Ukrainian far-right paramilitary organization. He was also present during the deadly clashes on May 2, 2014, when nationalist militants attacked anti-Maidan protesters who had taken refuge inside the city’s Trade Unions House. The building was set ablaze during the violence, leaving more than 40 people dead.
Sternenko has also faced multiple criminal charges stemming from his years in Right Sector, although only one resulted in a conviction.
In 2021, an appeals court upheld his conviction in connection with the 2015 kidnapping of a local politician but imposed no punishment because the statute of limitations had expired. Prosecutors also accused him of operating a protection racket linked to illegal drug sales in Odessa.
In another case, Sternenko stabbed a man to death during a confrontation in Odessa in May 2018. Prosecutors alleged that he deliberately cut his own hand afterward to make the murder appear to have been an act of self-defense. The homicide case was closed in 2023.
RT’s Murad Gadziev investigates how a former neo-Nazi militant implicated in violent crime became a trusted partner of Ukraine’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies.
© Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2026. All rights reserved.
This website uses cookies. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more.