Ministry of Justice: Yanukovych knew about plans to annex the Crimea ahead of time
Russia began to actively prepare for the occupation of the Crimea in 2013 and former President, Victor Yanukovych, knew about it, as was stated at a briefing by the Minister of Justice, Pavlo Petrenko, LIGA.net reports.
"We clearly identified and provided documents in the form of written evidence to the European Court for Human Rights which indicate that an active preparation phase for the occupation of the Crimea began in 2013. We also understand that such plans were prepared earlier. We managed to obtain evidence that in 2013 the Russian Federation had already started active intervention in the Crimea," he said.
"This is confirmed by the fact that the Russian Federation illegally increased its military contingent. Personnel and equipment from the Russian Federation was illegally transferred to Ukraine as is confirmed by the fact that they were carrying out active subversions and reconnaissance work among the local Crimean authorities – which has been documented," Petrenko said, stressing that the Ministry of Justice knows the names of the Russian officials who coordinated this special operation.
Petrenko noted that in the case files there is documented evidence of the capture and torture of local Crimean residents by Russian security forces in 2014.
"It confirms once against that the version of events provided by the Russian Federation that "they emotionally responded to the revolution" and "helped their brothers" in the Crimea by holding the "referendum" – is a total lie," the Minister said.
Petrenko stressed that the previous leadership of Ukraine – Yanukovych, his staff, and leaders of the special services could not have been unaware as to the actions taking place to prepare for the occupation of the peninsula.
"In fact, they helped to prepare for the annexation in 2013. We have presented all of this evidence to the European Court of Human Rights," the Minister stated.
On 7 October 2015, President Petro Poroshenko signed a law stating that the temporary occupation of the Crimea began on 20 February 2014.