Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian political leader allied with Russia to the point that the U.S. Treasury Department said he was involved in Russian preparations to (try and) topple the Ukrainian government, was recently taken into custody by Ukrainian authorities after previously escaping house arrest, to which he’d been subjected amid accusations of treason. Now, Ukrainian officials have taken control of over 150 pieces of property tied to Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, including cars and a yacht, among other items. As explained by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation, the “Lychakivskyi District Court of Lviv City, at the request of the State Bureau of Investigation, arrested 154 objects of more movable and immovable property of Ukraine’s MP Viktor Medvedchuk and his wife Oksana Marchenko.”
⚡️Court seizes 154 assets owned by family of Medvedchuk, State Investigations Bureau reported.
Pro-Kremlin lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk was captured on April 12 after he had fled from house arrest in February. He is suspected of treason.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 14, 2022
The seized property includes 26 cars, 30 land plots, 23 houses, 32 apartments, 17 parking places, and a yacht. “Shares in the authorized capital of 25 companies, the beneficial owner of which is Viktor Medvedchuk or his wife, were also seized,” the Ukrainian government source known as Ukrinform added, apparently referring to stock holdings that Ukraine’s authorities have now brought under their control. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed exchanging Medvedchuk for Ukrainian prisoners held by Russia, but the Russian government rejected this proposal — leaving one of their apparent top allies in Ukraine to be held by the country’s authorities. Specifically, Medvedchuk “had been under house arrest since 2021 on treason charges over accusations that he tried to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea and hand Ukrainian military secrets to Moscow,” as explained by Agence France-Presse.
⚡️ Ukraine's General Staff: Russia fails to mobilize enough military personnel in North Caucasus.
Locals don't want to fight in the war against Ukraine, according to Ukrainian intelligence data.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 14, 2022
A report on Monday from the Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske citing Ukrainian security authorities claimed that “Russian special services tried to take Medvedchuk first to Transnistria and later to Moscow,” but “Ukrainian law enforcement officers detained him on his way out” of the Kyiv area. Across Ukraine, the country’s defense against Russian violence remains resolute. The U.S. has announced $800 million worth of additional defense assistance for the country, consisting of various weapons for Ukrainians to use in their fight. Russia is believed to have already lost substantial numbers of troops — meaning thousands upon thousands — and large quantities of military equipment, although the Russian regime has refused to acknowledge the true scope of its strategic losses. Still, the impacts on Ukrainian civilians have been existentially devastating. Recent preliminary information from the long-targeted Ukrainian city of Mariupol put the death toll there at around 20,000 or slightly higher. The city had a population of well over 400,000 people before the war. There have also been numerous forced relocations by Russian personnel of residents of Ukraine, although the exact number of people subjected to these moves is not immediately clear.
JUST NOW: Donetsk Region Military Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko says 20,000-22,000 dead in Mariupol based on info from diff source, figure is preliminary, not verified. He says Russian forces are taking Ukrainian bodies to separatist controlled areas to hide casualties.
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) April 12, 2022
In related news, the German government has confirmed its seizure of the apparently largest yacht in the world (by weight) amid the global hunt for Russian oligarch-tied assets over the Putin regime’s violence in Ukraine. The vessel is called the Dilbar and is worth somewhere between $600 million and $735 million. Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who’s linked to it, is “known to be close” to figures including Putin, U.S. authorities have stated.
⚡️Ireland supports EU ban on Russian gas imports.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said “we are strongly in favor of doing everything we can in the context of sanctions against Russia,” which could discourage Moscow from continuing its war in Ukraine.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 14, 2022
