Kiev: Ukrainian Court Arrests Over 150 Properties of Opposition Figure Medvedchuk

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A Ukrainian court has seized over 150 properties including apartments, houses, and cars belonging to the leader of the Ukrainian Opposition Platform party, Viktor Medvedchuk and his wife, the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation announced on Thursday.

"Lychakov District Court in Lvov on the representation of the State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor General's Office has arrested 154 object of movable and immovable property of Ukrainian people's deputy Viktor Medvedchuk and his wife Oksana Marchenko. The arrested [property] includes 26 cars, 30 land plots, 23 houses, 32 apartments, 17 parking spaces, and a motor yacht", the bureau said on social media.

The beneficial shares owned by Medvedchuk and his wife in the authorised capitals of 25 companies were also arrested, the bureau added.

Last May, Medvedchuk, a longtime supporter of Ukraine's rapprochement with Russia and an opponent of joining the European Union, was accused of high treason and illegal exploitation of natural resources in Crimea and placed under house arrest.

Shortly after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, Medvedchuk escaped and remained in hiding until Tuesday, when the Ukrainian Security Service announced that he had been detained on President Volodymyr Zelensky's orders.

Later, Zelensky proposed to Russia to exchange the politician for captured Ukrainian soldiers. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that the Kremlin would keep an eye on Medvedchuk's fate and urged European politicians to do the same.