Poltava's court of appeals has scheduled a hearing of appeals against the ruling of the court of lower instance in the case against Kharkiv City Mayor Hennadiy Kernes and his guards Vitaliy Blinnyk and Yevhen Smitsky for August 30.

According to the court.gov.ua portal, the hearing will be broadcasted online.

"The courtrooms of the court of appeal are small in size and cannot accommodate a large number of people, and therefore, in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 328 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the number of those present in the courtroom may be limited by the chairperson in case of insufficient seats. Therefore, we note that the hearing of this case in the appeal court can be watched online," the court said.

The court cannot begin to hear the appeal since the end of August 2018. The hearings were repeatedly postponed in connection with the reform of the court of appeal, the failure of Kernes and the other accused, their lawyers to appear, and the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which heard petitions for the defense seeking to change the jurisdiction of the case.

As reported, unidentified individuals attacked participants in a demonstration in support of Euromaidan in Kharkiv on January 25, 2014. On the same day, Kharkiv Regional Council deputy Ivan Varchenko (Batkivschyna) reported the kidnapping of two Euromaidan activists – Oleksandr Kutianin and Serhiy Riapolov "after they removed the license plates of cars near Hotel National that belonged to Kernes' friends." Later, the public liaisons department of the Interior Ministry's main directorate in Kharkiv region said they did not have confirmation of the information about the abduction of the two activists.