The court announced a wanted list of former Yanukovych-era ministers: Oleksandr Lavrynovych and Kostyantyn Hryshchenko, who were charged with treason for preparing the "Kharkiv Agreements".
This was reported by the press service of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
The SBI investigators also plan to appeal to the court regarding the arrest in absentia of Lavrynovych and Hryshchenko. Extras are abroad.
According to the investigation, in April 2010, the suspects of a previous conspiracy with Yanukovych and the Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, deliberately harmed the sovereignty of Ukraine by following the steps imposed by the President of the Russian Federation, Dmytro Medvedev.
"Fully aware of the consequences of signing this agreement, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine and the ministers involved created the conditions for the extension of the Russian Black Sea Fleetʼs stay on the territory of Ukraine for 25 years. This contributed to the increase of military equipment and personnel of the armed forces of the aggressor state, which were used during the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol in 2014," the report stated.
The aforementioned former ministers participated in the preparation of the draft of this agreement, in particular, they prepared the Cabinet order on approval and the draft law on the ratification of the agreement.
- In the Kharkiv Agreements case, suspicions have already been announced against Yanukovych and Azarov. A special investigation has been launched against them.
- On July 25, 2022, President Zelensky fired the first deputy secretary of the National Security Council, Ruslan Demchenko, who, according to journalists, lobbied for the "Kharkiv Agreements" in 2010. At that time, he held the position of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and dealt with issues of relations with Russia.