On June 5 at 5:30 p.m., at the intersection of Vadym Hetman and Ushynsky streets in the Solomyansky district of Kyiv, a Mercedes-Benz C300 traveling at high speed left the road and broke through the fence of an underground pedestrian crossing. The accident claimed four lives: 12-year-old Hryhoriy Hlushych, a 47-year-old woman, 24-year-old senior lieutenant of the patrol police Dmytro Bondarchuk, and 21-year-old lieutenant Denys Budchenko. Three more people were hospitalized.
Who Was Behind the Wheel
At the wheel was Pavlo Pleshivtsev, born in 1976, a resident of Kherson region. Rescuers extracted him from the mangled vehicle — after the accident he ended up in intensive care under police guard.
Oleksiy Biloshytsky, Deputy Head of the Patrol Police Department, reported that Pleshivtsev has over 39 traffic violations on record, with 18 of them occurring in 2026 alone. Earlier that year, he was already involved in one accident that resulted in no casualties. The main working theory of the investigation is speeding; the exact speed will be determined by forensic examination.
What the Court Said
On June 8, the Shevchenko District Court of Kyiv was deciding on a preventive measure. The prosecutor requested 60 days of detention without bail as an alternative, citing the risk of witness tampering and flight.
"Sufficient evidence has been gathered that he is responsible for this offense. There are also risks of flight from law enforcement, illegal influence on victims and witnesses."
Prosecutor at the Shevchenko District Court hearing
Pleshivtsev was defended by lawyer Yevhen Mel — the same lawyer who previously represented Olena Zaitseva in the high-profile Sumska traffic accident case. He apologized to the families of the deceased on behalf of his client and did not object to detention, but asked the court to consider that his client was in the hospital.
"For him, as a father of five children, what he is responsible for is unbearable. He is not very satisfied that he survived."
Lawyer Yevhen Mel
Pleshivtsev himself spoke briefly at the hearing: "I feel very guilty." While at liberty, he said he worked in greenhouse farming and drove a taxi.
The court fully granted the prosecutor's request: detention until August 3 inclusive, with no bail option. Pleshivtsev was notified of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — violation of road safety rules resulting in the death of multiple persons. The penalty is up to 10 years imprisonment with deprivation of the right to drive for up to 3 years.
A Detail That Doesn't Fit the Simple Picture
39 recorded violations — this is what the system managed to register. None of them led to license suspension or any real restriction on driving. The question about the mechanism for enforcing administrative penalties remains open: if after, say, the tenth violation in a year his license had been automatically revoked — would Pleshivtsev have been behind the wheel on June 5?
If forensic examination confirms speeding rather than a technical vehicle malfunction, the prosecutor will have grounds for prosecution without any procedural loopholes. But the verdict will depend on whether the investigation can prove that the driver was aware of the risk — and whether the court will interpret 39 violations as systemic behavior rather than merely background information.
