Viacheslav Chornovil - Death and Remembrance

Death and Remembrance

Chornovil was expected to become the main opposition candidate against the incumbent president Leonid Kuchma for the 1999 presidential election, but Chornovil's presidential campaign was interrupted in its early stages by his suspicious death in an automobile crash on March 25, 1999, his assistant Yevhen Pavlov was also killed in the crash . The official investigation carried by the Ministry of Internal Affairs concluded that the crash was purely accidental and discovered no evidence of the foul play. However, some of Chornovil's supporters called his death a political murder and called on bringing those responsible for it to justice. The fact of murder is stated on the website dedicated to Vyacheslav Chornovil and created by his son Taras Chornovil, a deputy of Verkhovna Rada formerly from the Party of Regions

In 2003, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin with the nominal of 2 Hryvnias dedicated to Chornovil.

On August 23, 2006, Viktor Yushchenko, the previous President of Ukraine, unveiled a monument to Chornovil and ordered a new investigation into his death. On September 6, 2006, Yuri Lutsenko, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, announced that based on the information he saw, he personally believes that Chornovil was a victim of the murder rather than a car accident. Lutsenko stated further that the investigation is now carried by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine, the law enforcement authorities not under Lutsenko's control. He went further, alluding that "certain circles" in the Prosecutor's Office and Security Service are stonewalling the investigation. However, on August 9, Oleksandr Medvedko, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, commented at the news conference that Lutsenko's statement is "unprofessional" as his conclusions are based on unreliable information.

On March 25, 2009 a funeral service was held in near the memorable sign in Boryspil and admirers (including the Mayor of Kiev (then Leonid Chernovetskyi)) lead flowers on his monument in Kiev to mark the 10 year passing after Chornovil's death. The same day the People's Movement of Ukraine called on the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine to complete investigation into the case involving the killing of their former leader Viacheslav Chornovil and his assistant Yevhen Pavlov in a road incident until 2010.

In 2009, a Ukrainian stamp devoted to Chornovil was issued.