Among the "clients" of his sinister business were mentioned Prime Minister Tymoshenko, future Presidents Yushchenko and Poroshenko, and dozens of high-ranking politicians and officials. Perhaps this was the key to the incredible resilience of Volodymyr Didukh — one of the last Lviv "authorities" of the ’90s, who successfully settled in modern Ukraine. Today he pretends to have long abandoned criminal activities and even claims that he never engaged in them and has always been an honest businessman. But it’s hard to hide a needle in a sack, especially when it drips with the blood of dozens of victims.
His name (or rather, nickname) first echoed across the country in 2005, at an expanded meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the participation of the new President Yushchenko. "What is this Morda on account of whom everyone in Lviv is crying? It’s a specific nickname for one of the thugs. How many divisions do you need to get rid of this Morda?" Yushchenko shouted with feigned anger, demanding generals destroy all Ukrainian organized crime groups by January 1, 2006. The leader of the first Maidan either didn’t know or forgot that under the nickname "Vova Morda" hides a Lviv "authority" that financed "pro-Ukrainian" political forces and, together with his tough guys, participated in guarding the scene of the "Orange Revolution" from a possible attack by equally tough guys from organized crime groups in Kharkiv and Donbas.
Then Didukh reminded of himself at the end of 2014, when he got an interview with the publication "Express." Perhaps he was restless from the laurels of former "mafioso" Leonid Roytman, who gave some truly sensational exposure interviews about the criminal past of a number of Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs — from Leonid Kuchma and Yuliya Tymoshenko to Roytman’s former "associates" the Konstantynovski brothers. But unlike the talkative Roytman, Didukh then only poured "Express" with dirt on one of the leaders of the VO "Svoboda" Ihor Kryvetskyi, but did not want to honestly talk about his own past. "In the early ’90s I went to Moscow, where I earned my first million dollars," — he limited himself to these words. Well, perhaps the virtual entrepreneur Volodymyr Didukh did go to Moscow to do business — after all, he needed to somehow explain the origin of his capital! However, the real Lviv "brother" Vova Morda spent the ’90s at home, not doing business but racketeering and bloody showdowns. Telling about this, of course, would not be very desirable, especially for the sponsor of the main nationalist party of Ukraine and the defender of the first Maidan.
A shoemaker in "authority"
Volodymyr Didukh was born on January 29, 1967, in the village of Riasne, which in the ’80s became a suburb of Lviv, in an ordinary and not wealthy family. After graduating from an eight-year school, without standing out for any talents, he went to a vocational school, to the group of shoe masters — the same school where future railway oligarchs Dubnevych brothers studied. As we can see, Lviv region is rich in outstanding shoemakers!
Repairing worn-out shoes and gluing pads on shoes Volodymyr Didukh categorically did not want to. He dreamed of big and easy money, but he had no opportunity to earn it through semi-legal commerce or theft (which many "cooperators," including the same Dubnevychs, rose on in the ’80s). But he was very interested in the idea of the rough taking of this money from others — not by robbery but by racketeering. Before Didukh’s eyes was the example of the first criminal "brigades" collecting tribute from cooperators, and as he later admitted, his favorite book was "The Godfather."
Volodymyr Didukh
Contrary to tales of his alleged business in Moscow, in the early ’90s Didukh was engaged in racketeering in his homeland. Indeed, it is hardly likely that an owner of a million dollars, unless he was Shura Balahanov, would have spent his time extorting a couple of thousand from entrepreneurs in the town of Pustomyty. Where in 1994 Didukh was detained by local police station operatives.
However, he didn’t even have time to sniff the "parasha" — the criminal case was quickly closed, and he was released (under Article 7 of the CPC "due to a change of circumstances"). But this happened not because his buddies intimidated witnesses or bought the "cops." According to sources of SKELET-info, the reason for his release was the agreement to cooperate with the authorities — and allegedly from this moment, Volodymyr Didukh became their eyes and ears (as well as hands) in the Lviv organized crime groups. In any case, this explains the "luck" that always accompanied Vova Morda: having been arrested several times with charges of very serious crimes (extortion and murder), he never received a serious sentence — at most he was given a suspended sentence. And then, in 1994, he was lucky not to become a victim of the criminal redistribution of Lviv after the murder of the main "authority" of the city Orest Zavynskyi, known as "Zavynya."
At that time, his name was whispered by ordinary people, but worldly fame quickly passes: in the spring of 2017, metal hunters robbed Zavynskyi’s grave, sawing off parts of the tombstone. Interestingly, Zavynya was the first of the criminal "authorities" of Lviv to pay attention to the eccentric party of Oleh Tyahnybok (at that time it was still called the Social-Nationalist) and decided to invest in this project. And not just to invest but to appoint his people to it: thus, Petro Kolodiy, a future head of the Lviv Regional Council, joined Tyahnybok — who in the early ’90s was Zavynskyi’s personal driver and guard.
Returning to Vova Morda, another interesting fact can be discovered in his past, also related to the authorities. Namely: somehow the media reported that in the same 1994, after being released Volodymyr Didukh and his criminal friend Taras Chura went to Moscow. But Didukh didn’t stay there and quickly left back, while Chura allegedly underwent months-long training in the special operations center of either the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Federal Security Service (then it was called the FSB) of Russia. Training of a specific character: it was reported that after returning from Moscow, Chura immediately organized a group specialized in espionage and murders. This group became the main combat wing of the organized crime group of Oleksandr Pstyha (nicknamed Little Chick), which Volodymyr Didukh was an assistant to since 1995, having just recommended him Chura. Little Chick quickly appreciated the prospects of using such a "special forces" and even purchased surveillance equipment and special weapons for it. Nothing like this had been in the criminal world of Lviv since the SB OUN!
And Pstyha-Little Chick became one of the most terrible and brutal "authorities" of Lviv in the ’90s, especially after one by one his competitors started dying. They were not dying in classic showdowns.
In 1996, Roma Hlukhyi (racketeering, trading in medicines) was blown up in his jeep. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the murderers sold him a batch of weapons, including grenades — which turned out to contain a small "surprise." It was reported that it was an accident, supposedly the weapons were sold by Chechens, only this "accident" looked very professionally executed (along with the unusual grenade initiating the explosion, several kilograms of explosives were also inside the car). In 1997, a professional killer calmly approached Vasyl Tymchuk (Vasya Khimik) sitting at a table in the hotel "Tustan" and calmly pierced his head, after which he also calmly exited the building and got into a car. Rumors spread in Lviv that some secret organization of law enforcement officers was killing "authorities", whispering about some "White Arrow" (some claimed it was "Black"). However, soon a scythe of death was raised over Little Chick as well.
Interestingly, at that time Pstyha’s wife was the scandalous Lesya Sofiyenko, the future wife of the regionalist Volodymyr Pyekhov — Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Prysyazhnyuk. In 2012-2014, this trio became famous for their brazen raiding captures! But even in the ’90s, Sofiyenko had a sinister reputation as a woman who would stop at nothing to claim something — even murder. And not only competitors or too unyielding victims: sources reported that, eventually, she decided to get rid of her next husband.
Lesya Sofiyenko and Volodymyr Pyekhov
And so on July 3, 1998, Oleksandr Pstyha was killed in the cafe "Eastern Cuisine". Killed very carefully: the driver and bodyguard Mykhayo Mylyan (nickname Hedgehog), who was nearby, had a bullet only slightly scratch his hand. Mylian was called another friend of Didukh, and after the death of Little Chick, he immediately became the personal driver of Vova Morda — the new Lviv "authority," which shared Oleksandr Pstyha’s legacy with his wife. And Vova Morda’s authority began to grow as other leaders of Lviv’s organized crime groups kept dying.
Vova Morda is needed by everyone!
Pstyha’s death only added fuel to the fire of criminal infighting that engulfed Lviv. It seems that someone decided to use it as a pretext for the removal of other "authorities" — ostensibly out of revenge. Everyone was killed: paralyzed Roman Shchadylo was shot (December 1998) in a wheelchair. The keeper of Lviv’s "case of money" Hryb (a generally untouchable figure) was shot near his house. A real massacre took place in bloody 2000: then Bazyl was killed, the underworld "authority" Vova Sukhumskyi (Volodymyr Zinchenko) was killed, and Arthur Kozmyn was shot at home at the table, along with his old mother and ten of his people. Then a wave of murders swept through the region: the leaders of organized crime groups in Stryi (Oleh Lynya), Drohobych, Boryslav were killed. In total, 14 leaders of large and small organized crime groups entered the other world prematurely in three years — not considering their closest aides and countless numbers of shot "bulls." This "genocide of authorities" ended with the murder in 2001 of Ihor Myloslavskyi (nickname Fly), who was the most respected and influential criminal leader of the region, the second Zavynya.
As a result, in Lviv, the last big "authority" Mykola Lozynskyi (Kolya Rokyro) remained "the main one," and the most combat-ready was the organized crime group of Volodymyr Didukh. Moreover, according to Didukh himself, Rokiro was his godfather (who christened whose children, he did not specify), and this connection in Ukrainian organized crime (as well as in Ukrainian politics) is no less strong than the Sicilian "godfatherhood." But the most important thing was that until 2007 (when Lozynskyi was killed) there was a prolonged peace in the criminal community of Lviv — well, if you do not count the attempted assassination on Didukh himself in the summer of 2004, which remained unsolved and very mysterious.
The involvement of Didukh’s organized crime group in these events could be denied only by a blind or a "cop in sheep’s clothing." It’s not surprising that by 2000 Vova Morda was declared a suspect in the organizing of Arthur Kozmyn’s murder, who before his death expressed to Didukh many claims. This case was handled by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mykhaylo Korniyenko, who arranged a press conference where he showed photos of Didukh’s organized crime group members. They were announced in the wanted list, data was sent through the line of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the SSU, but it all ended with nothing. One fine day Vova Morda himself came to the prosecutor’s office, and after a long conversation, the subject of which remained unknown, he calmly went home. What happened? Unknown "curators" in uniforms? Not only them!
In the very heat of the "Lviv massacre," Didukh’s people were seen in Vinnytsia. And literally at the same time, an assassination attempt was made there on the head of the region Dmytro Dvorkis, who miraculously survived (he and his guard were injured, the driver was killed). Many law enforcement officers believed that this was the "signature of Morda," but they had no direct evidence. But the most interesting thing is that in response to the question "who benefits this?" the name Poroshenko was repeatedly mentioned — who had very tense relations with Dvorkis and constantly undermined him. Coincidence? However, a few years later Didukh will appear in the role of... one of the assistants to the deputy Petro Poroshenko! Also coincidentally?
Serhiy Varys, for SKELET-info
To be continued...