Kremlin prepared two ‘puppet leaderships’ for Ukraine ahead of invasion — media reports
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According to a high-ranking source in the Ukrainian intelligence, the Kremlin did not have “any final plan of who would be appointed to which position,” but Medvedchuk, the former member of the outlawed Opposition Platform — For Life (OPZZh) party, who is suspected of treason, “saw himself in the top roles.”
Read also: Ukraine’s SBU says Medvedchuk wife’s companies financed Russian security forces in occupied Crimea
Volodymyr Sivkovych, the National Security and Defense Council’s deputy secretary under Yanukovych’s presidency, who is currently hiding in Russia, was preparing to become the “manager” of the puppet “authority.”
Interlocutors of the newspaper say that Medvedchuk was one of the few who knew exactly about the Russian invasion, and even participated in its preparation.
Medvedchuk stopped communicating early on Feb. 24 and appeared in the OPZZh’s party chat only on Feb. 26, when Illia Kyva, who had publicly supported Russian aggression, had to be expelled from the faction.
Medvedchuk then managed to persuade the OPZZh faction’s members and postpone Kyva’s expulsion.
According to the Ukrainian special services, the invaders planned that the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, once surrounded by Russian troops, would remove its chairman, Ruslan Stefanchuk, on Feb. 27, and Medvedchuk would become “spokesman” and “acting president,” the newspaper reports.
After the Russian plans failed and Medvedchuk disappeared, Russia came up with “plan B” — fugitive former President Viktor Yanukovych. He tried to challenge the Verkhovna Rada’s act on his self-removal through the Kyiv District Administrative Court.
“After Medvedchuk’s ‘disappearance,’ the Russians did consider the option of returning Yanukovych to Ukraine,” the newspaper’s sources in the SBU security service said.
“He was to have announced again that he is the ‘legitimate’ (president) and other such nonsense.”
Read also: Ukraine’s SBI says ex-president Poroshenko, pro-Russian politician Medvedchuk may be cross-examined
On Feb. 27, 2022, days after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Medvedchuk escaped from house arrest. He was charged with high treason, in connection with the “coal case,” which concerns Ukraine purchasing coal from Russian proxies in Donbas in 2014-2015.
On April 16, a court in Lviv arrested Medvedchuk, with no bail.
The biggest prisoner swap of the war so far took place on Sept. 21, 2022, when 215 people were freed from Russian captivity. Of them, 108 were defenders of Azovstal, including five commanders.
The Azovstal commanders were exchanged for 55 Russian military personnel, while Ukraine handed over Medvedchuk, a former oligarch and a personal friend of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
On Jan. 13, the Verkhovna Rada voted to deprive them of their deputy’s seats.
On Feb. 17, Medvedchuk said that he had been “forced” to live in Moscow.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
