The indictment against the former prime minister of Viktor Yanukovychʼs time, Mykola Azarov, was sent to the court. He is accused of information work in favor of Russia.
This was reported by the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.
The investigation established that Mykola Azarov, who has been in Russia since 2014, has been active in information activities in cooperation with Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He regularly participates in the broadcasts of Russian news channels and, promoting Russian narratives, discredits Ukraine.
In the videos posted on the Inaya Pravda YouTube channel and Russian media portals, Azarov justifies the armed aggression of the Russian Federation and the occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine. The ex-official calls the events in Bucha "fake", calls for de-Nazification and a violent change of the Ukrainian government and assures that Putinʼs special operation saved Donetsk from capture by "preventing this tragedy".
Azarov is accused of public calls for violent change and overthrow of the constitutional order, carrying out information activities in cooperation with the aggressor state and justifying, recognizing as legitimate, denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
- As early as 2021, Azarov was arrested in absentia by the court in the case of the "Kharkiv Agreements", when the government and parliament agreed, and then Viktor Yanukovych in 2010 signed a deal with the Russian president to extend the Black Sea Fleetʼs stay in Sevastopol for 25 years. Ukraine agreed to this in exchange for a reduction in the price of Russian gas, which actually did not happen.
- On October 12, 2023, Azarov and two of his assistants, one of whom is an official of the capital district state administration, were informed of a number of suspicions.
- On November 18, 2023, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, approved the National Security and Defense Councilʼs sanctions against former Prime Minister Azarov and a number of other politicians.