State prosecutors on Aug. 25 confirmed the arrest of former Deputy Defense Minister Valery Ivashchenko on suspicion of abuse of оffice. Ivashchenko was detained on Aug. 21. Pechersky District Court in Kyiv has ordered to arrest the former deputy defense minister, Valeriy Ivaschenko, the spokesman for the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuriy Boichenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

According to him, the criminal proceedings against the former acting defense minister were launched on August 20 under part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power or office). He was arrested, and Pechersky Court in Kyiv ruled to place him in custody for two months.

Boichenko confirmed the reports in mass media about the charges against the former first deputy defense minister.

The press service of the Prosecutor General's Office reported later that that in November 2009 former acting Defense Minister Valeriy Ivaschenko, while abusing his official position, contrary to the interests of the service, violating the requirements of part 1, Article 19 of the law on the renewal of the solvency of a debtor or declaring him bankrupt and clause 2, Article 5 of the law on the privatization of state property, had signed a bailout plan regarding the sale of the property of the Defense Ministry's state-owned enterprise Feodosiya Ship and Mechanical Plant.

"As a result of such actions, the state suffered losses of over Hr 17 million," reads the statement.

The Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (Mirror Weekly) newspaper reported on Tuesday, referring to a source in the Prosecutor General's Office, that military prosecutors detained the former first deputy defense minister, Valeriy Ivaschenko, on August 21.

According to the newspaper, Ivaschenko is charged with illegally making a decision to sell the property of the Feodosiya Shipbuilding and Mechanical Plant. According to information possessed by the prosecutors, a considerable part of the plant's assets, including the strategically important infrastructure facilities (a deepwater berth), became private property after the reorganization of the state-run enterprise. The prosecutors suspect that the new owner of the moors and other property of the Feodosia plant is Andriy Senchenko, an MP of the oppositional Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko faction.

Investigators allegedly have a document signed by Ivaschenko which allows the sale of any property of the Feodosiya plant, including deepwater berth, after the reorganization. The implementation of this decision inflicted serious damage to the state-run enterprise, the newspaper said.