The prosecutor’s office of Ukraine is ready to put Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the political council of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, on the wanted list if he is confirmed to have violated the conditions of house arrest. This was announced on Sunday, February 27, by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Irina Venediktova.
“If we do not make sure that he is at home, we will, of course, put him on the wanted list. As soon as we put him on the wanted list and find him, we will go to court and ask for a new preventive measure for him – detention. I think that the court in this case will take our side,” she said in an interview with Ukraine 24 TV channel.
She also noted that the agency is in contact with the politician’s lawyers and expects them to provide information about his whereabouts.
On Sunday, a number of media reported that Medvedchuk had escaped from house arrest. The same information was confirmed by the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko on Facebook.
In turn, Medvedchuk’s lawyer Larisa Cherednichenko denied the information spread in the media that the politician had escaped from house arrest.
She said that Medvedchuk did not escape – he was evacuated to a safe place in Kyiv due to threats against him from radical nationalist groups. The authorities were informed about the intention to transfer the deputy to another place, Cherednichenko noted.
On January 10, the Kyiv court ruled to extend Medvedchuk’s house arrest for two months in the case of coal supplies from Donbass.
On December 17 last year, the Kyiv Court of Appeal refused to cancel the politician’s house arrest in the case of coal supplies from Donbass. The court did not satisfy the appeals of both the prosecutor’s office and the defense. Medvedchuk called the court’s decision illegal.
On November 2, Medvedchuk said that the case against him for treason and embezzlement of national resources in Crimea was falsified by the Security Service of Ukraine. According to him, the court’s decision to select a measure of restraint is illegal and there were no grounds for this. According to investigators, in 2014 Medvedchuk organized the supply of coal from the territory of Donbas not controlled by Kiev in collusion with the top leadership of Ukraine.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass. After that, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of hitting the country’s military infrastructure and introduced martial law throughout the state, and also announced that Kiev had broken off diplomatic relations with Moscow and recalled Ukrainian diplomats from the embassy.
On February 21, Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR). Also, the President of the Russian Federation and the heads of both republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, signed treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, which were ratified by the republics themselves and Moscow the next day.
Since 2014, the Ukrainian authorities have been conducting an operation against the inhabitants of Donbass, who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government in Ukraine. At the same time, Kyiv blames Moscow for the current situation. Russia has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the conflict.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
