Василь Рябошапко Vasyl Riaboshapko

“By the way, speaking of school, it helped me a lot in my career. I was already working in the law enforcement agencies, serving as the head of the Zaliznychnyi District Department in Lviv, when one of my former teachers called me and said: “Vasyl, Americans are here and they're looking to establish contacts with the police. Come and meet them.” So I went to meet one of the members of this American group and it turned out that they wanted to organize a project for exchanging police officers between Ukraine and the United States. This was in 1996. Of course, I was very interested in this idea, and I wanted to go to the United States myself. Practically all of us hadn’t been abroad before. But when I suggested this to my boss at the time, he refused and said: “What are you talking about? You should focus on dealing with criminals in the Zaliznychnyi District of Lviv. Forget about America”. So I turned to the late Viktor Lukyanovych Rohulskyi, the former rector of the University of Internal Affairs. He was always interested in new things, and thanks to him, we launched this program. In 1997, we welcomed twenty police officers from the United States, and later, twenty police officers from Lviv region went to the United States. We were there for three weeks. And I want to tell you that it had an impact on our worldview, on our understanding of law enforcement, on our understanding of how people live in civilized and democratic countries. We came back from there as completely different people. It was a twenty-year anniversary of our trip, a few years ago. I gathered our participants again - everyone is alive and well, except for Viktor Lukyanovych Rohulskyi, who is an older man. And we had this meeting in the building of the University of Internal Affairs, invited students who are currently studying, future police officers. They listened with open mouths to what we told them, what we saw, what we brought with us. I want to say that we learned a lot in the United States back then, but on the other hand, when the Americans were with us, they openly told us that they liked some of the things we were doing, believe me. I remember it was such a spectacular moment when an African-American man, so handsome and powerful, wearing a police hat, with such a nose...in American police uniform, served in the city center on the Rynok Square with our patrol officers. You should have seen how our people reacted - approached him, took photos, showed interest, and so on. There was a guy named Yaroslav Panchyshyn who worked with us at that time, unfortunately, he passed away. He was the editor of legal programs on our Lviv television, which practically no longer exists, unfortunately. He filmed everything - he filmed how the Americans were here, and then he traveled with us to the United States. He was constantly with his camera - he captured all of it, and as a result of our collaboration, travels, meetings, and education, he produced a whole film that was shown on our Lviv television. It was a great success; it was repeated several times, and only then did he approach me for an interview, during which I specified some things. This is a great experience, and I want to tell you that it is necessary to communicate with our colleagues abroad because it... it helps you grow in terms of intelligence, politics, and social issues, whatever you want. In this regard, I want to tell you that about twenty years ago, I started heading the International Police Association in Lviv. This is a public organization that unites employees of internal affairs agencies and... not only them - fans of internal affairs agencies can also join. We are not afraid of this - let them join. And to this day, I head it. Thanks to this organization, we have many contacts throughout Europe and we keep in touch with our colleagues. And today, our attention to them has transformed into very important matters for us. When the war in Ukraine started, we received many calls from our colleagues, and we received a lot of humanitarian aid, especially during the first month of the war, this aid was sent from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia... We directed all of this aid to our units on the front lines and to our police units who were serving... It was significant, it was meaningful. Unfortunately, there isn't as much activity now, but we understand that they are also living people and they can't give everything away. However, this humanitarian line continues - and this is great, thanks to our contacts with our partners in Europe. We have felt like Europeans in Lviv for a long time now, and we have been in contact with our colleagues for over a decade. Our relationship with them is absolutely friendly, communicative, and understanding. When I was the head of the State Emergency Service, I maintained close relations with the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, which was then headed by General Yuzef Yedynak, a fantastic Polish general who attended our police days here in Lviv. I visited him there. He gathered his colleagues from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the Germans were always there in the Subcarpathians. He said: “Vasyl, criminals have no borders, but the police must have some boundaries in solving their official issues and so on.” We worked directly with him, through calls, and signed an agreement between Lviv Department of Internal Affairs of Lviv region and the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, designated coordinators who were responsible for this line. We had, well, brilliant relationships, and today we still remain friends, but on a personal level, we talk on the phone, meet occasionally, recall how it all was, and hope that such cooperation will continue in the future. And today we see the results - it is the Poles who first and foremost support us in all matters - helping our refugees, law enforcement officers, and everyone they can. They help us in every possible way, and to this day they continue to do so.”

“A turning point in Lviv was the protest near... near the Department of Internal Affairs in Lviv. The head of the department at that time was the late Vitalii Popov, and the city police were then led by the late Hryhorii Yakovych Shabaiev. Stanislav Petrovych Verbytskyi was his deputy, he is alive today, doing well, and has a good memory. Popov then gave the command to the riot police (OMON)... to disperse this protest, and the OMON carried out their orders - the protest was dispersed, which caused great unrest among the public in Lviv and misunderstanding from the progressive part of the police. We did not understand why this was done, because people were standing with posters, demanding something, shouting something about independence. The had posters about it, and so on. Why were they dispersed? This was unclear. Well, after this, Popov immediately fled, and that was the end of any problems in Lviv in this field. You know perfectly well that we had protests very often near the Shevchenko monument. At one time, there were weekly protests there, then less often - monthly. So, we always provided security there, always coordinated with... the organizers of the protests, with their... activists. That's it. And we had no problems. There were no problems in Lviv region.”

“I will say again that I was born in this triangle [of streets in Lviv] - Kyivska Street and the then Stalin-Myra Street. Why Stalin? Because when I was growing up, the street was named after Stalin, and my mother sent me to the bread store and told me to go to Stalin Street to buy bread. Later, the street was renamed Myra Street. It was Myra Street for a long time, and now it's Stepan Bandera Street. Kyivska Street remained Kyivska. My childhood was spent in the courtyard of our large building. Children were not escorted by parents to different sections like they are now. We were just sent to streets and ran around the neighborhood. So, my personal development took place in the courtyard. When I went to school, it was from Pryvokzalna Street to Ivan Franko Square - the school №4. It was also five tram stops away, and nobody ever took me there. I went there myself, in a tram, with a backpack on my shoulders. Then I was very lucky that we had a sports team. Those kids were in the courtyard, and we always did different sports there. And someone, I don't remember who, took me to Melnyka Street, which was the old name for the current Melnyka Street. There was the “Spartak” society, and I played tennis professionally. From the fourth grade to the end of university, I participated in competitions at the all-Ukrainian level, and of course, regional and Lviv competitions. And I want to tell you that without this sports background it is very very difficult and hard to work in the police. I still have this love for sports. I continue to play tennis at a professional, veteran level. And my second sports hobby is football, mini-football. We have played football all our lives. What is good about it for a policeman? Sports games allow you to switch your attention and rest. They give your head a chance to rest, because the martial arts that we also engaged in during our service, yes, you still think about work. But when you engage in team sports, you are forced to switch and rest from work. That is why this second hobby is for life - it was, is, and will be with me. We had such a powerful football team in the system of our Ministry of Internal Affairs. We traveled practically all over Europe with that team, won tournaments in Poland, Belgium, Spain, Italy - participated and won tournaments. These are our guys, absolutely all police officers, who achieved such success... well, we played among police officers, you understand that it is a level, not like [laughs]... we didn't play against professional athletes. But this is a high enough level, and we achieved great success. Without this, a police officer cannot exist - you need to engage in sports, and this is health, this is psychological health, so I promoted sports in the Ministry of Internal Affairs when I worked in this or that body”.

“With your permission, I would like to make a small...such a small introduction. You know, musicians call this a tuning fork. ...Tuning with a tuning fork. To make it more interesting for our listeners, I want to tell you that I worked in the Lviv police force all my life. I was in service for 38 and a half years. So, I am the only general who was born in Lviv. Among all our generals, my colleagues are very much respected people, but I am the only Lviv resident. During all these years, both under dependent and independent Ukraine, this is the first achievement that someone will probably surpass, my achievement, someone from Lviv, a native of the city of Lviv, will now lead the Lviv police. And here are some achievements that have happened in my life, professional achievements that no one else can achieve - I headed all police units in our region. This is the air police, the tax police, the territorial police, and the transport police. And why can no one else achieve this success? Because there is no air police or transport police anymore, and the tax police is also about to complete its existence - it will also not be there. So this record of mine, no one will ever...not this one...Well, because I think I have written a certain page in the history of Lviv region.”