Pavlo Lebedev, who served as Ukraine’s defense minister in 2012-2014 during the tenure of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, has been summoned for questioning by the State Investigations Bureau (DBR), the agency announced on June 17.
The DBR wants to interrogate the former official on June 19, despite the fact that Lebedev now resides and runs a business in Russian-occupied Crimea.
According to media reports, the agency is investigating Lebedev as part of a criminal case into the annexation of Crimea in early 2014. At the time, Ukraine’s top military command and political leadership failed to launch armed resistance to the Russian invaders, de facto surrendered the peninsula without fight and abandoned numerous Ukrainian units deployed in the area as Russia seized control of Crimea.
Last month, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office also issued an order to take Lebedev to custody in absentia on charges of involvement in the massacre of protesters in Kyiv during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014. Over 100 people were killed when armed government forces cracked down on the demonstrators.
Lebedev fled Kyiv in February 2014, shortly after Yanukovych escaped to Russia. The former defense minister settled in the city of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, acquired Russian citizenship and returned to running businesses.
Lebedev is currently believed to be one of Sevastopol’s biggest real estate developers.
