Baptist church leader with a history of traffic accidents: what is known about the Mercedes driver who killed four people in Kyiv
Kyiv • UNN
In Kyiv, Pavlo Pleshyvtsev, driving a Mercedes, crashed into a pedestrian underpass, killing four people. Previously, the man had repeatedly violated traffic rules and had already caused accidents.
A fatal traffic accident involving a Mercedes-Benz vehicle occurred in Kyiv on June 5. Behind the wheel was a 49-year-old native of the Kherson region, a leader of a Baptist church, who has been repeatedly held accountable for speeding and causing traffic accidents, UNN reports.
Details
As sources in law enforcement agencies told UNN, the driver of the Mercedes who struck and killed four people in Kyiv today is named Pavlo Pleshyvtsev.
He is currently in intensive care, with law enforcement officers standing guard outside the door.
It is known from open sources that Pleshyvtsev was born on September 16, 1976, in the village of Pidstepne, Oleshky district, Kherson region, which is currently occupied by Russian troops.
The man is the head of the religious community of Evangelical Christian Baptists "Church of the Village of Pidstepne," which is also registered in Pidstepne.
Additionally, from 2005 to 2015, he had a registered sole proprietorship (FOP) also in Pidstepne. The main type of activity was "retail trade in markets."
Furthermore, the man has systemic traffic violations—specifically, he has repeatedly exceeded the speed limit and has already been involved in four traffic accidents, two of which occurred in 2026 alone.
For instance, in March 2026, at around 8:00 PM in Kyiv on Stepan Bandera Avenue, while driving a Mercedes-Benz, Pleshyvtsev failed to choose a safe speed considering the road conditions, failed to maintain a safe lateral interval, lost control, and collided with a Peugeot Partner.
At that time, the court fined Pleshyvtsev 850 hryvnias.
Recall
In Kyiv, a Mercedes was traveling at high speed, the driver lost control, and as a result, drove into a pedestrian zone. There are dead and injured as a result.
The editorial office of UNN has obtained a video of the moment of the horrific accident, in which four people died and three others were injured.
In Kyiv, the driver of the Mercedes that crashed into an underpass was hospitalized with physical injuries.
The driver of the Mercedes, who sped into a capital underpass and caused the deaths of four people, had been repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility for speeding.