European Union member states on Thursday imposed sanctions on former pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr for their alleged role in threatening Ukraine’s security.
The European Council said in a statement that the two men were added to a list of European sanctions implemented “in response to unjustified Russian military aggression against Ukraine.” Viktor Yanukovych presided over Ukraine from February 2010 to February 2014, when he was ousted in a popular uprising against the turn of his government, which had moved away from the West towards Moscow.
President Putin’s Russia reacted to its ally’s defeat by seizing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and an enclave in eastern Donbass. In February, Moscow launched an all-out offensive against Ukraine.
A plot against Zelensky?
Several member states of the European Union and NATO provide Kyiv with sophisticated weapons to help defend itself, and Brussels has adopted a series of sanctions. The EU believes that Viktor Yanukovych, 72, who lives in Russia, still plays “a role in undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”.
The statement published this Thursday in the official gazette of the EU accuses him of conspiring to try to return to power in Ukraine if the Russian invasion succeeds in overthrowing President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As sanctioned persons, Viktor Yanukovych and his son will be subject to an EU visa ban and the freezing of any assets held in EU countries.
Source: BFM TV
