During the years of Leonid Kuchma’s presidency (in contrast with that of his predecessor) there have been a number of contract attempts on prominent politicians and businessmen, and no one behind any of them has been brought to justice.
* In July 1996 an attempt was made on the life of then Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko when an explosive device went off several meters from the Premier’s cortege. Mr. Lazarenko emerged uninjured.
* On November 4, 1996 in Donetsk near an airplane boarding ramp unknown assailants shot People’s Deputy and member of the Liberal Party governing board Yevhen Shcherban. Law enforcement closed the books on political explanations of the crime and treated it as a purely criminal case.
* On December 2, 1997 in Odesa Bipa Moda General Director Arkady Tabachnyk was murdered along with his bodyguard. Judging from everything, it seems to have been a contract killing.
* On February 5, 1998 in Simferopol a bomb exploded near Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Council of Ministers Aleksandr Safontsev. He was severely wounded as a result of an unknown explosive device near his car door. The bomb had been placed in a garbage container. After several difficult operations, he died.
* On the evening of April 22 Vadym Hetman was killed by unknown assailants in the elevator of his apartment building.






