British, Canadian families push Ukraine to investigate sales of chemical used in suicides

A package from Ukraine containing a chemical consumed by a woman who committed suicide in the U.K. (Supplied)

Canadian and British families are pushing the Ukrainian government to protect vulnerable young people worldwide by cracking down on the sale of a deadly chemical from that country, just as Ontario authorities prosecuted Kenneth Law for selling the same substance.

But while a police force in the U.K. says it’s liaising with authorities in war-torn Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine tells CTV News it’s not ready to investigate, saying the chemical can be sold legally as a food preservative.

‘Aiding and abetting suicide’: victim’s mom

“These people are aiding and abetting suicide. That’s illegal. That’s what all these governments should be looking into,” Mary Pritchard said in an interview with CTV News from Suffolk, England.

Pritchard’s daughter Grace died last year at 23. Her parents say they found a package with the chemical, which CTV News is not naming, with a Ukrainian return address.

“Grace was a delight. Witty, empathic,” remembered her father, Bob Pritchard, sharing some of the work the young artist had created.

British police had intercepted two packages and conducted a welfare check on Grace, who had struggled with her mental health. But a third package somehow got through, they said.

“She was our everything. It was when our world ended,” her mother said.

Ottawa woman died after consuming chemical

It was a similar story in Ottawa, where 22-year-old Annekah Dallin O’Grady died after consuming the chemical, ordered via a website from Ukraine.

The young woman’s mother Susan Dallin O’Grady said she followed her daughter’s digital trail to discover a pro-suicide online forum that steered her daughter to the Ukrainian seller.

“The day she found out about the existence of that website was the day she ordered it,” Dallin O’Grady said.

The seller, Leonid Zakutenko, confirmed to CTV News he sold the product regularly to Canada, but said it was just a food preservative, and he didn’t do it to help her die.

Ukraine police say substance not illegal

CTV News asked the National Police of Ukraine what they planned to do about the case. In a response, they noted that the chemical is not illegal.

“Under current Ukrainian legislation, [the chemical] is not classified as a narcotic drug, psychotropic substance, or precursor subject to controlled circulation...” a spokesperson for the agency wrote.

But the agency left the door open to the prosecution of a specific crime, adding, “At the same time, should specific information be received or discovered indicating the commission of a criminal offense, such information will be subject to legal assessment.”

Chemical sold at 99 purity

O’Grady said anyone selling this chemical for food generally sells it at 6 per cent purity, and Zakutekno’s website was selling it at 99 per cent.

“When I heard that it’s extremely disappointing because it’s clear that this is not really a cooking store. The seller is clearly putting out products that if someone used to make hot dogs they would kill themselves,” she said.

Kenneth Law sold same chemical online

Ontario’s Kenneth Law was selling similar concentrations of the chemical on his website, which he marketed as a meat-curing salt, netting some $300,000 from online retailer Shopify and payment service provider PayPal.

He was convicted of aiding and abetting suicide in 14 Ontario cases.

Prosecutors read the circumstances of dozens more cases in England in an agreed statement of facts.

A tally by CTV News links Law’s products to some 150 deaths.

• READ MORE: Little has changed since Kenneth Law’s arrest, says father whose son died by suicide

U.K. police want to work with Ukraine

In the U.K., Northumbria police confirmed to CTV News that they are investigating a death, and hoping to work with Ukraine.

“We do have an investigation here at Northumbria Police and we are liaising with Ukrainian authorities as our enquiries continue,” said spokesperson Catriona Bathan.

The Pritchards have also written to Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy, whose office wrote back to say it would forward their concerns to Ukraine’s national police.

They said they supported the Ukrainians as they try to repel the Russian invasion, and briefly put up a Ukrainian flag, but had trouble when they realized the Ukrainian connection to their daughter’s death.

The war should not be a cover for someone to profit from death, Bob Pritchard said.

“Hopefully President Zelenskyy will see sense and realize this is a relatively straightforward thing to do, bearing in mind the troublesome war. This isn’t for us. This is a global issue. It’s for all the other people out there who are dying,” said Bob Pritchard.

Ottawa police, meanwhile, have not responded to questions about how that police force is handling the O’Grady case.