The dangerous gang has been operating in Ukraine since 2014.
A dangerous criminal group known as the “Korostyshiv Gang” has been exposed in Ukraine, which has been committing brutal crimes such as rape, kidnapping, and torture of its victims for a long time. This gang has been operating in Ukraine since 2014 and has caused fear among the local population.
The “Korostyshivska gang” operated in the Zhytomyr region and was neutralized by the SBU and the National Police. The gang members documented their crimes for years.
One of the victims, whose name is not being released by the media, is now twenty-five years old. Nine years ago, she and her friend were kidnapped from under a student dormitory and taken to the banks of the Teteriv River. There, they were severely beaten and raped.
"They took me out of the car and started grabbing my hair and beating me against the car. At one point, they lifted my head from the car and I saw that they were beating Anya. I saw blood flowing from her nose and she was crying. They beat me against the car again and I lost consciousness," the girl recalls.
Gang members extorted “debts” and enslaved locals
She was 16 years old at the time and was studying to be a primary school teacher. Almost every evening, a local criminal named Kolya came to visit her. At first, he made clumsy advances. But when he got the hint, he decided to take what he wanted by force.
“They raped me in turns, both of them, while continuing to beat me. And they filmed everything on their phones. While one was raping me, the other was filming,” the girl recalls.
The rapists were going to use the video for blackmail. The girls were warned that if they went to the police, the footage would be distributed among the students. Our heroine filed a complaint. Her friend did not. She had to leave the college.
“I left immediately. I morally could not be here. Everyone found out about it and Kuzyomko (one of the attackers) spread a rumor that we went for barbecue, that he didn’t give it to me, and I was offended and went and wrote a statement,” says the victim.
And then they started asking for Kolya. First his parents, then the local policeman. The case was closed nine years ago.
“Kolia Kuzyomko’s parents came to me, offering me money to take the statement. And then the investigator started pestering us to take the statement,” the girl explains.
Only now, after a special operation by the SBU and the National Police, two rapists have been arrested. The third did not make it to the pre-trial detention center. He died a few years ago from taking anabolic steroids. The girl is still being treated. Not only morally: the jaw bones healed incorrectly and she is collecting money for surgery.
“I want them to be punished as much as possible. All three of them,” the girl says.
The perpetrators terrorized the locals for 10 years
Politician demanded $2,000 from local businessman's son
The second victim asks to be called Ivan. He is the son of a local businessman. Six years ago, he studied at a local college to become a pharmacist. Bandits kidnapped him from his home.
“This is the exact place where a gang of racketeers took us in the winter, threatened us with our lives, beat us, mocked us, forced us to take off all our outer clothing, in the cold winter, forced us to go swimming, and filmed it all. It was definitely minus 5,” says Ivan.
Members of the “Korostyshivska gang”
The kidnappers demanded that Ivan confess to raping the sister of the local Radical Party deputy, Mykhailo Lukomsky.
“They said so, but I had nothing to do with her,” he says.
Later, the investigation would reveal that the politician was part of a gang. And the scheme involving the fabricated rape of his sister was used for blackmail.
“After some time, they called my parents and informed them about a non-existent debt. In the amount of $2,000. They gave me a deadline – 24 hours,” he says.
As soon as the money was paid, the gang broke loose. Ivan dared to file a complaint with the police and the SBU only after he learned about the arrest of the criminals. Now Lukomsky is in pre-trial detention.
“I expect these people to be behind bars and held accountable for everything,” he says.
Bandits put a soldier on the "counter" and brutally beat him
Nazar is a soldier in one of the airborne assault brigades. Together with his comrades, he defends Ukraine in the Donetsk region. With the beginning of the war, he was, as they say, “counted” into a gang.
“I fell into a debt trap, they swindled me out of almost 200 thousand hryvnias,” says Nazar.
The guy recalls that he was originally supposed to pay a fictitious debt of one hundred dollars. After a week of deferment, it was already two hundred dollars.
“Then he said that I owed him not 200, but 500 dollars. I started giving him back a little bit. I gave him something like 500 hryvnias. Well, little things. Then he said that 500 makes a lot. In a month I fell into a debt hole. When I asked how much I owed, they said 190 thousand. I gave him almost 70 thousand in 4 months,” says the soldier.
In 2023, Nazar and his brothers went to the Donetsk region. The bandits continued to blackmail him, already because of his pregnant wife.
“My wife calls me and says that Kolya Kuzyomko and the guys were coming and they said that if I don't get in touch, she'll get in the car with them and she'll pay the bill,” he says.
When the soldier returned from leave, he was kidnapped and severely beaten.
“When I arrived, Ruslan Tvardovsky took me to the garage, there was a gym, they put batons, fingerless gloves, and Dima Kuks, and they started beating me. I had two broken ribs. Then Lavrynenko got in there. He arrived and started – where are the grandmothers, when will the grandmothers be,” he says.
The guy shared his problem with his peers and was advised to contact the SBU. The special operation to detain him took place a month later.
Arrest of a gang member
Criminals also had slaves
The media also met with an SBU operative at a local stone quarry. The bandits would bring debtors here and force them to work off fictitious debts. Such prisoners were called slaves and were housed there.
“One of the co-organizers of the criminal organization threatened them that if they did not pay the interest, they would work here for life,” says an SBU employee.
The criminals kept pigs alongside the people.
“People were kept in such conditions. Together with pigs. The pigs were nearby, the workers were sleeping and working nearby,” he says.
A special method of torture was used against those who tried to escape from captivity
"Men who didn't work were hung directly from a beam and abused. A sack was tied at the top and the person was hung from the beam and beaten with a whip," says an SBU employee.
Currently, the main leaders of the “Korostyshivska gang” have been arrested: the leader of the syndicate, Anatoliy Morgunov, and seven of his accomplices, including the rapist Kuzyomko, are in pre-trial detention.
