Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is on a US sanctions list and was recently informed that he is suspected of treason for cooperating with Russian military intelligence, revealed on Wednesday that a Kyiv court had ordered his detention for 60 days, and on Monday, the 13th of November, he was informed that he is also suspected of spreading false information about Ukraine’s political leadership, reports Reuters.
“The court upheld the prosecutor’s request to impose on me a precautionary measure of detention for 60 days until the 12th of January 2024,” Dubinsky said in a video posted on his Telegram channel. He did not specify the reason for his detention.
On Monday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Telegram that a politician was suspected of treason without disclosing his name.
However, lawmakers Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, First Deputy Head of the Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Policy Committee, and Oleksiy Honcharenko publicly identified Oleksandr Dubinsky as a defendant in the treason investigation.
“Dubinsky received a notice of suspicion of state treason.
Today a search was carried out at his place,” Honcharenko said on Telegram.
Ukrainian parliamentary deputy Oleksandr Dubinsky has been suspected of treason
It is alleged that he spread fakes about #Ukraine‘s top military and political leadership at the behest of Russian intelligence.
The Security Service of Ukraine believes that he worked in an entire… pic.twitter.com/93CDfftS57
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) November 13, 2023
According to Reuters, Dubinsky called the notice of suspicion fabricated and “based on absolute lies of the state officials”.
The SBU revealed that the suspected traitor is allegedly a member of a criminal organisation funded by the Russian military intelligence service, and that the organisation, set up in 2016, includes a former MP, his assistant, and a former prosecutor.
Reuters writes that in a separate statement published on the website of the State Bureau of Investigation, it said that, acting on instructions from the Russian special services, the group organised events aimed at slandering Ukraine’s international image in order to “complicate diplomatic relations with the US and
hinder Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO”.
In January 2021, the US imposed sanctions on several Ukrainian individuals and entities, including Oleksandr Dubinsky, alleging that they were involved in influencing the US elections and were linked to a pro-Russian Ukrainian MP linked to efforts by then-President Trump’s allies to obtain information on President Joe Biden and his son.
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