“A special operation has been carried out thanks to the Ukrainian Security Service. Bravo!” Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel. The message is accompanied by a photo of Medvedchuk, seated, handcuffed and dressed in military clothing with a Ukrainian flag badge.
Medvedchuk was under house arrest by order of the judge, but he fled on February 24, just as Russia began its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The 67-year-old politician and businessman was accused of high treason for revealing state secrets, having business in the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, working for Russia and having “solid ties” with Putin.
In fact, he visited Moscow several times to meet with Putin, which was widely reported on Russian public television, the last time in July 2019, when Zelensky was already president.
The man known as Putin’s compadre always defended the granting of a status of autonomy to Donbas and even presented a peace plan that was backed by Moscow.
Yacht allegedly owned by Medvedchuk seized
Said plan, which included granting high levels of self-government to the areas controlled by the pro-Russian separatists and their own police force, was also presented to the European Parliament. “If you ask me who can lead the Ukrainian state, I would mention Zelensky last,” Medvedchuk told Efe before the 2019 presidential elections won by the current Ukrainian president.
At the time, Putin called the arrest of Medvedchuk, leader of the Opposition Platform for Life party, a “purge of political space” in Ukraine and warned that Russia will react “in a timely and adequate manner.”
“The decisions are clearly political and arbitrary, and are aimed at clearing the political space of those forces that advocate a peaceful solution to the crisis in southeastern Ukraine, Donbas, and good-neighborly relations with Russia,” he said. .
Croatian authorities recently seized a yacht allegedly owned by Medvedchuk.
jov (efe, theindependend.uk)