Kernes disappearance mystery deepens

The police of the Kharkiv region opened a criminal
case on Nov. 9 related to the disappearance of the recently re-elected mayor
Hennadiy Kernes. The case was opened in response to a statement filed by the
leader of a local civic organization, who said that they could not contact
Kernes nor locate his whereabouts. The case for deliberate murder was
accompanied by the note that Kernes was missing without a trace, said the
police report, which then removed from the website shortly after being posted.
The police said the report was “incorrect and irrelevant” as its reason for its
removal, as reported by the pravda.com.ua news site. Kernes’s whereabouts are
known, alleged Yaroslav Trakalo, the deputy director of communications with the
internal affairs ministry.

A photo of a hospitalized Kernes, alongside his son
through marriage Rodion Haysynskiy, was posted on Telegram on Nov. 10 by Pavel
Fuchs, an energy magnate and Kharkiv native. In the photo, Kernes appeared to
have a breathing tube attached to his nose and appears somewhat dazed, with his
eyes half open. “Hennadiy Adolfovych offers his greetings from Sharite,” Fuchs
wrote for the caption, referring to the Berlin hospital. The photo strangely
includes a cartoon text bubble with the words from Kernes, “I offer greetings
to all Kharkivites. And particular greetings to all those who lost track of
me.”

Kernes was re-elected the mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s
second-largest city, for the second time at the Oct. 25 local elections,
reported on Nov. 4 the Kharkiv city territorial election commission. He earned
a supermajority of 60.3% of the vote. Yet Kernes has not been seen in public
since early September. He was reported on Sept. 15 to have been diagnosed with
the COVID-19 disease and confirmed the next day to be undergoing treatment at a
hospital in Berlin. Kernes will open the first session of the Kharkiv City
Council, which will be no later than Dec. 20, his deputy, Ihor Terekhov,
assured the public at a Nov. 5 press briefing.

The 61-year-old Kernes was the target of an
assassination attempt in April 2014, which was likely related to his support
for Ukrainian statehood and suppression of pro-Russian revolts in the city. He
was shot but miraculously survived, having received treatment in an Israeli
hospital. Kernes is considered by Ukraine’s pro-Russian forces as among those
most responsible for undermining the Novorossiya separatist project by siding
with pro-Western forces (though also suppressing them during the EuroMaidan).

Zenon Zawada: The mystery surrounding Kernes’s disappearance is not unusual in the
light of the typical soap opera of Ukrainian politics. There have been various
rumors, ranging from him being in critical condition to his possible death,
which seem to have been disproven. At minimum, Kernes seems to have a team of
advisers that has been handling for at least a half year the city’s governance,
which has been rather successful given Kernes’s strong support in the city.
This team likely has Kernes’s backing, given that his son seems to be a part of
it, though nothing is certain. No one knows what to expect with this drama, but
the city of Kharkiv is in stable condition in spite of it.