The former leader of the banned Communist Party of Ukraine, Petro Symonenko, has been served with a notice of suspicion of public calls to seize state power, the Office of the Prosecutor-General has said.
He is charged with public calls for a violent change of constitutional order or the seizure of state power, justification, recognition of the legitimacy, denial of Russian armed aggression against Ukraine (Article 109 (3), Article 436-2 (3) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
According to the investigation, Symonenko supported Russia's armed aggression and, during the occupation of Kyiv Region, appealed to Russia's top military and political leadership for his "evacuation".
To evacuate the suspect and his family from the then-occupied village of Berezivka, Makariv District of Kyiv Region, the Kremlin sent a Russian special forces unit there.
He met them and then settled them in his own home and provided them with food.
From 4 to 8 March 2022, the occupying special forces "escorted" the suspect and his family through enemy checkpoints to the territory of Belarus.
From there, he moved to Russia, where he was appointed deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the International Communist Association Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In October 2022, the suspect took part in the so-called 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Labour Parties, which took place in Havana, Cuba.
During his speech at the event, he tried to legitimise the seizure of part of the territory of Ukraine and the activities of the L/DPR terrorist organisations.
In addition, from 21 to 22 April 2023, the former MP took part in an "anti-fascist forum" held in Minsk. He advocated for the continuation of the aggressive war against Ukraine and justified the Kremlin's narratives about the use of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian Federation.
In December 2015, the Kyiv district administrative court banned the activities of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Thus, the court upheld the Justice Ministry's motion in full.