Former deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine Oleksandr Skipalsky has said that ex-deputy head of the national gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy Ihor Didenko and former head of the State Customs Service Anatoliy Makarenko were arrested in order to neutralize leader of the Batkivschyna (Fatherland) Party Yulia Tymoshenko and her team.
"This is being done in order to neutralize Tymoshenko and her milieu to the maximum possible extent, defeat her both in local and in future [central] elections, so that this political force (Batkivschyna) cease to exist. That’s the main goal," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to him, it is difficult to predict how the events around the arrests of Didenko and Makarenko will unfold.
"Judging by the style, they still want to expand the set of people to be arrested," he added.
