He is accused of playing a role in the threat to Ukrainian territorial integrity, and of plotting to replace Volodoymyr Zelensky if Russia prevails on the military ground.
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The member countries of the European Union have added the pro-Russian former Ukrainian president (2010-2014), Viktor Yanukovych, and his son Oleksandre, to the list of personalities targeted by European sanctions. They will be subject to an EU visa ban and a freeze on any assets held in EU countries.
EU says Viktor Yanukovych, 72 and living in Russia, is still playing “a role in harming or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”. The statement, published in the EU’s official journal, accuses him of plotting to try to return to power in Ukraine, if the Russian invasion manages to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky. “According to different sources, Viktor Yanukovych was part of a special Russian operation to replace the Ukrainian president with him, during the early stages of the illegal military aggression against Ukraine.”
Her son was placed under sanction for the same reason and for having “carried out transactions with separatist groups in the Donbass region”. The 49-year-old is accused of enriching himself through connections in his father’s former regime and owning businesses and real estate in the self-proclaimed ‘republics’ of Donetsk and Lugansk, controlled territories by pro-Russian forces in the Donbass.
Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in 2014 during a popular uprising against the turn taken by his government, which had turned away from the West to get closer to Moscow. President Vladimir Putin’s Russia reacted to the defeat of its ally by seizing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and an enclave in the eastern region of Donbass.