Yanukovych requests to participate in court hearing

Former Ukrainian President Yanukovych had requested to
participate by videoconference in a Dec. 9 court hearing in determining his
detention in a criminal case of his involvement in the EuroMaidan killings on
Feb. 18-20, his lawyer said on Dec. 8 on his Facebook page. The first hearing
on Yanukovych’s detention was held on Dec. 9, without but without his direct
participation.

Court procedures don’t allow for Yanukovych’s
participation in the hearing, state prosecutor Oleksiy Donskiy told the
hromadske.radio news site that day. “The latest statement is against
jurisprudence and an attempt to gain publicity off the absence of legal
moments. The demand for a videoconference is an attempt to extend the review of
this petition for months by any means. The Russian Federation is not fulfilling
any of our requests for international-legal assistance in this case, beginning
with confirming the location of Yanukovych in Russia and ending with the conducting
of any procedural actions,” he said.

Zenon Zawada: We are
confident that Yanukovych made the request at the direction of his Russian
handlers. We view this event as significant because it demonstrates that
Russian agents are still waging a battle to discredit the EuroMaidan in the
minds of the Ukrainian public. They are able to do this with the help of
Russian-oriented television networks in Ukraine, namely 112, NewsOne, and Nash.
The longer this process is dragged out in the mass media, the more they will be
able to work on discrediting those events, and Ukraine’s Western integration
attempts in general.

It will soon be seven years since the EuroMaidan
revolt, with no criminal convictions of any decision-makers involved in the
killings. This fact alone leaves these events vulnerable to inaccurate
interpretations and narratives being spread by Russian-oriented media. Even
recently, top officials in the Zelensky administration have been defending the
role and activity of the Russian-oriented mass media. These factors will serve
to hinder Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration.