On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky announced the arrest of pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvetsuk, a friend of the Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
“A special action has been taken to thank the Security Service of Ukraine Bravo!” Zhelensky wrote on his Telegram channel.
The news is accompanied by a photo of Medvetsuk, seated, handcuffed and wearing a military uniform with a Ukrainian flag badge.
Medvetsuk was placed under house arrest on a judge’s order. But he fled when Russia launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24.
‘Strong relationship with Putin’
The 67-year-old politician and businessman has been charged with high treason for revealing state secrets, doing business in Crimea, annexed the Ukrainian peninsula, working for Russia and maintaining “firm ties” with Putin.
In fact, he traveled to Moscow several times to meet with Putin, which was widely reported on Russian public television, last in July 2019, when Zhelensky was already president.
Donbass
The so-called Putin’s ally has always supported the granting of autonomous status to Donbass. He put forward a peace plan with the support of Moscow.
The plan included granting top-level autonomy to pro-Russian separatists and areas under the control of their own police force. He also presented the plan to the European Parliament.
“If you ask me who can run the Ukrainian state, I will mention Gelensky last.” This is what Medvetsuk told the EF before the 2019 presidential election, which the current Ukrainian president won.
At the time, Putin called the arrest of Medvedev, the opposition leader for life, a “cleansing of the political space” in Ukraine. He also warned that Russia would respond “at the right time and in the right way”.
“The results are clearly political and arbitrary, and are aimed at removing the political space of the forces that suggest a peaceful solution to the crisis of good neighbors with southeastern Ukraine, Donbass and Russia,” he noted.
Croatian authorities recently seized a boat allegedly owned by Medvetsuk.
🇷🇺🇺🇦 | Ukrainian President Zhelensky has announced the arrest of one of Putin’s close associates, Viktor Medvetsk, and said he would take power in Ukraine if Kiev fell. He was arrested by Ukrainian forces in a “special operation” – BNO.pic.twitter.com/C1d6nNbfXs
– World in Conflict 🌎 (undMundoEClicto) April 12, 2022
🔴 Zelensky shows in a handcuffed photo, Victor Medvetsuk, the former leader of the largest opposition party in parliament and has been called Putin ‘ambassador’ to Ukraine. He has been under house arrest since 2021 at the start of the invasion https://t.co/MFpFlQPOSx pic.twitter.com/82k3cU3pb4
– Country (@el_pais) April 12, 2022
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