According to Ukrainska Pravda, security officials said the 43-year-old, originally from Odesa Oblast but registered as a resident of Kyiv, was reportedly preparing to attack Sternenko on orders from Russian special services and had been surveilling him. Ukraine’s SBU security service reported that she received funds from Russian intelligence and withdrew cash from various ATMs and banks. On April 15, following instructions from her handlers, she rented an apartment in a residential complex in the Ukrainian capital. SBU officers later detained her.
Sternenko said the woman was armed with an unregistered sidearm — possibly a Makarov pistol, according to photos in the report. Ukrainska Pravda also published video footage showing the woman waiting by an exit from a building, firing at Sternenko, and then being detained by one of his companions.
Earlier on May 1, Sternenko made a public post saying that he was shot in Kyiv. His injury was not life-threatening, and in several hours, he underwent surgery at a local hospital.
Sternenko, a civic activist and former leader of the Right Sector in Odesa, has survived multiple assassination attempts in the past, including three in 2018. The attacks followed his involvement in protests against the demolition of the Summer Theater in Odesa and his opposition to Russian cultural influence in Oblast, according to BBC Ukraine.
On May 24, 2018, Sternenko fatally wounded one of two attackers during an assault. He was later charged with premeditated murder and illegal possession of a weapon.
In February 2021, the Primorsky District Court in Odesa sentenced Sternenko to seven years in prison for allegedly kidnapping Serhiy Shcherbych, a newly elected deputy of the Kominternivsky District Council. The conviction sparked protests in Kyiv. On May 31, the Odesa Court of Appeals overturned the robbery charge and replaced the prison term with a one-year suspended sentence for illegal possession of weapons.
In December 2023, Sternenko announced that the court had closed a separate case accusing him of exceeding the limits of self-defense.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Sternenko has been active in Ukraine’s volunteer movement, raising millions of hryvnias to support Ukrainian soldiers.