MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Investigative Committee could add Ukrainian tycoons, who raise funds for Kiev’s military crackdown in eastern Ukraine, to its list of wanted criminals, a Russian daily said Wednesday.
“Some businessmen do not even try to hide the fact that they are not only providing financial assistance, but are actually taking part in the operations,” the Izvestia newspaper cited a source in the committee as saying.
“We also have evidence that some of them have ties with criminal gangs,” the source added.
Russian investigators are reportedly considering bringing a criminal case against Ukrainian industrial oligarch and the newly-appointed pro-Kiev Donetsk Region Governor Serhiy Taruta, who ranks among the world’s 500 richest people, according to Forbes.
Ukraine’s lawmaker and the leader of the local nationalist Radical Party Oleh Lyashko, as well as the Konstantinovsky multimillionaire twins Oleksandr and Vyacheslav could also be added to the list, Izvestia’s source said.
Eastern regions of Ukraine have been targeted for attacks of the Ukrainian Army since mid-April after Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation to crack down on its growing independence movement.
According to the United Nation, at least 1,500 civilians have died in the conflict and nearly 3,500 have been injured. The fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands, most of whom have fled to Russia.
