On June 5 at 17:30 at the intersection of Vadym Hetman and Ushynskyi streets in Solomianski district of Kyiv, a Mercedes traveling at high speed left the roadway and crashed into an underground passage where people were present. Four died on the scene. Three more died in the hospital.
Who died
Among the victims are a 12-year-old boy, a 47-year-old woman, and two district police officers: Senior Lieutenant Dmytro Bondarchuk, 24 years old, from Boyarka, and Lieutenant Denys Budchenko, 21 years old, from Rivne region. Both were on duty.
Who was behind the wheel
According to Kyiv police and Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office, Pavlo Pleshyvtsev, born in 1976, a resident of Kherson region, was at the wheel. He is 49 years old. An examination determined that he was sober at the time of the accident.
Since January 2025, he has been held administratively liable five times for speeding, and fined five more times for other traffic violations.
— Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office
In other words, over the past year and a half — 10 fines. No license suspension. The driver continued driving.
Detention and suspicion
Pleshyvtsev was freed from the damaged vehicle and hospitalized — his injuries are not life-threatening. Already on Saturday, June 6, investigators detained him under Article 208 of the CPC of Ukraine — without a court decision, based on sufficient grounds. The driver is being held under guard in a hospital ward.
That same day, the prosecutor's office charged him under Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code — violation of traffic rules that caused the death of multiple persons. Maximum punishment — up to 10 years imprisonment with a ban on driving for up to three years. Simultaneously, a motion was filed for a preventive measure in the form of detention without bail.
What's next
The court will consider the preventive measure in the coming days. If the motion is granted — Pleshyvtsev will remain behind bars until sentencing. If not — there is a risk that the prosecutor's office has already identified as unacceptable.
A separate systemic issue is that Ukrainian law does not provide for automatic license suspension after a certain number of speeding fines. Ten violations in 18 months — and the person remains legally behind the wheel. Whether this changes following the controversy surrounding this case depends on whether there will be enough attention to pass the relevant bill in Parliament.
