The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has declared the suspicion of former MP, leader of the banned Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Symonenko.
SBU reported this on August 11.
He was declared of the suspicion under Article 109 (public calls for a violent change of power) and Article 436-2 (justification of armed aggression of the Russian Federation).
During the occupation of Kyiv region, Petro Symonenko appealed to the highest military and political leadership of Russia and asked to "evacuate" him to the Russian Federation. In order to take Symonenko and his family out of the village of Berezivka, which had been seized at the time, in the Makariv district, the Kremlin ordered a detachment of special forces of the Russian Federation to be sent there. When they arrived in Berezivka, Symonenko personally met them, and then settled them in his own house and provided them with food.
From March 4 to 8, 2022, the occupation special unit escorted Symonenko and his relatives through Russian checkpoints to the territory of Belarus. From there he moved to Russia, where he was appointed deputy chairman of the "Central Committee of the international communist association "Union of Communist Parties — Communist Party of the Soviet Union". It is a completely pro-Kremlin organization controlled by the Russian Communist Party headed by its leader Gennady Zyuganov.
Later, it was on the instructions of Zyuganov that Symonenko began to publicly support Moscowʼs policy. Thus, in October 2022, he took part in the 22nd "International Meeting of Communist and Workersʼ Parties" in the city of Havana, Cuba. During his speech, Symonenko tried to legitimize the seizure of part of Ukraine and the activities of the "L/DPR". In addition, on April 21-22, 2023, Symonenko took part in the congress of the "anti-fascist forum" in Minsk, where he supported the continuation of the war and justified the Kremlinʼs narratives about the use of nuclear weapons.
