The 23-year-old man was found on Tuesday, June 5 in the forest outside Eskhar village near Kharkiv. Immediately after the tragic discovery, and the amount of reproach from the local community struck responsible authorities. Bychko's death was no accident.
Among others, the young activist was an administrator of the "Initiative Youth of Eskhar" (Ініціативна молодь Есхар). Some of his concerns include the pollution of local bodies of water and corrupted officials. On May 16, he informed about ecological commissioning to identify possible violations in Eskhar.
Murder!, people claim
“Since the death of Nikolai Bychko is silenced in facebook groups controlled by the powerful and oligarchs, I believe we are on the right track... We have only one goal-- to find the culprit of Nikolai's murder,” Roman Likhachov, local human rights defender, explains on his Facebook post.
Whether the Ukrainian administration will be investigating the unfortunate event properly is not clear to the experts on the persecution of environmental activists.
"If Bychko's activities related to public affairs were the reason for his death, I'm afraid it is unlikely that we will ever found out the real circumstances of his unfortunate fate," explains Martin Skalsky from Czech non-governmental organization Arnika, operating in Ukraine.
People from the community keep posting new information on social media ("Eskhar" and "Chuhuiv info" facebook groups), organizing rallies, and demanding resignation of responsible bodies.
13/07/2018 The death of an activist near Kharkov. The police told Were When The results of the examinations Would Be ready (Gx.net.ua)
12/07/2018 The death of the activist: The Residents of Eskhara will demand the Resignation of the leadership of the district department (Newsroom.kh .ua)
07.06.2018 Eskhar activist's death: someone burned the hanging rope (Newsroom.kh.ua)
06.06.2018 Anti-corruption activist was found hanged near Kharkiv (Journalist.today)
06.06.2018 Human Rights defender: “Signs of fighting were found on the deceased activist's hands” (Newsroom.kh.ua)
06/06/2018 Kharkiv found the body of local activist - Ukraine(Vaaju.com)
06.06.2018 The shelf reported the details of the hanged activist's death (Newsroom.kh.ua)
06.05.2018 An activist was found hanged in the forest near Kharkov (Newsroom.kh.ua)