Ukrainian and Russian officials have alleged that Putin‘s ‘true motivations’ behind the invasion of Ukraine were driven by revenge against Zelensky for sanctioning a Ukrainian politician still friendly to Moscow after 2014’s Crimean crisis.
Independent Russian outlet Verstka published a report on April 25 titled ‘How Putin Came to Hate Ukraine’, quoting current and past officials in both Russia and Ukraine.
The article claimed Russia started preparing for a military operation after Zelensky slapped sanctions on Moscow ally and Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
Medvedchuk, 68, who now lives in exile in Russia, led the pro-Russian Opposition Platform for Life party before he was added to the Ukrainian sanctions list in 2021 due to the alleged financing of terrorism.
Three sources close to Putin said various sanctions imposed by Zelensky against Medvedchuk and allies were ‘the last straw’, pushing Putin to get ready for a full scale military operation.
Fugitive oligarch and Putin’s close friend Viktor Medvedchuk is seen handcuffed after a special operation was carried out by Security Service of Ukraine in Ukraine on 12 April 2022
Putin (R) attends a meeting with Viktor Medvedchuk in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 18 July 2019
Medvedchuk was one of several pro-Russian voices that emerged in Ukrainian politics after the dissolution of the USSR.
He is a personal friend of Vladimir Putin and is currently exiled in Russia, having been part of a prisoner swap in September 2022.
Putin was said to have been enraged by the ‘personal attack’ on his ally in Ukraine.
Medvedchuk had reportedly told Putin of strong pro-Russian sentiments in Ukraine, ‘stupidly misleading Putin’, a source close to the presidential administration said.
Newsweek reported after the war began that he still looked like the favourite to be put in place as the new head of state were Russia to decisively defeat Ukraine.
The lawyer-turned-politician made a name for himself in Ukraine’s second government under President Leonid Kuchma as the head of his presidential administration from 2002 until 2005.
The administration was marred by corruption and saw Ukrainian-Russian ties improve.
Medvedchuk was later considered the main person behind-the-scenes driving Viktor Yanukovych’s 2004 candidacy.
Yanukovych was ousted in February 2014 and later exiled to Russia.
Increasingly, Medvedchuk rallying against the European Union – comparing it to the Hitler’s Third Reich.
Pro-Russian gunmen then stormed into the Crimean parliament and allegedly forced the installation of a new pro-Russian prime minister.
After Crimea, Medvedchuk was considered the most friendly politician to Moscow still in Ukraine.
When Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko left office in 2019, Medvedchuk’s close associate Taras Kozak acquired three news channels.
The pro-Russian channels criticised President Zelensky, who came to power that May.
Medvedchuk’s Opposition Platform for Life party grew as a result, Verstka reports.
In response, a special operation was carried out in February 2021 to ‘neutralize’ Medvedchuk, the publication says.
Medvedchuk and his ally were slapped with harsh sanctions, the new President saying the TV channels had carried out anti-Ukrainian propaganda and interfered with Ukraine’s integration into the EU.
The channels were banned from broadcasting, irking Putin.
Vertska claim that the sanctions also affected Medvedchuk personally, ‘who, along with his wife, was included in the list of the SBU investigation on the financing of terrorism’.
He was later among those sanctioned by the British government in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Sources close to Putin said it was the destruction of Medvedchuk’s ‘information resource’ which finally drove Putin to invade in February 2022.
‘The Kremlin decided not to resort to the tools of “soft power” anymore.’
Pictured: Zelensky arrives for a meeting with Austrian chancellor in Kyiv on 9 April, 2022
A day before Russia’s invasion on 24 February 2022, Kyiv said Medvedchuk had escaped from house arrest and went on the run.
Ukraine’s national security agency wrote on twitter: ‘You can be a pro-Russian politician and work for the aggressor state for years.
‘You may be hiding from justice lately. You can even wear a Ukrainian military uniform for camouflage… But will it help you escape punishment? Not at all! Shackles are waiting for you.’
He was ultimately caught on 12 April in a ‘lighting-fast and dangerous multi-level special operation’, Ukrainian security services said.
He was eventually handed into a prisoner swap in which Ukraine sent Medvedchuk and 55 Russian POWs in return for 215 POWs in September last year.
