From 2010 until 2014, Viktor Yanukovych was President of Ukraine. He pursued a pro-Russian policy when in office. A Ukrainian court found Viktor Yanukovych guilty of treason for having invited the Russian Federation to invade Ukraine. After being removed from power, he relocated to Russia, from where he has continued his activities aimed at destabilising Ukraine.
He considers himself as the legitimate President of Ukraine and has consistently presented a pro-Russian stance in his public interventions. According to different sources, Viktor Yanukovych has been part of a Russian special operation, aimed at replacing the Ukrainian President with him, during the first phases of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Furthermore, the President of the Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has requested the President of Ukraine to transfer all his powers to Viktor Yanukovych.
In 2023, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation submitted an indictment against Viktor Yanukovych on charges of treason and aiding Russia in carrying out subversive activities in Ukraine.
On 21 April 2010, then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and then President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, according to which the term of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in Sevastopol was extended from 2017 to 2042. By signing the agreements, Yanukovych created favourable conditions for increasing Russia’s military presence in Ukraine and for the re-equipment and modernisation of the weapons of the Black Sea Fleet in the territory of Crimea. Subsequently, Russian weapons that were on the territory of Ukraine were used to annex the autonomous so-called “Republic of Crimea” and the city of Sevastopol in 2014.
Therefore, Viktor Yanukovych is responsible for, supporting or implementing actions or policies which threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as the state’s stability and security.
He assisted in the Russian military interference in Ukraine by calling on the President of the Russian Federation to send Russian troops to Ukraine in March 2014. Viktor Yanukovych supported pro-Russian politicians who held public offices in occupied Crimea. In 2021, a new pre-trial investigation in Ukraine was opened according to which Viktor Yanukovych, together with two former Ministers of Defence, had purposefully reduced the defence capacity of Ukraine, particularly in the autonomous so-called “Republic of Crimea”.