CHISINAU (Reuters) – Ukrainian lawmaker Yevgeny Yakovenko was detained at the border with Moldova at the request of the International Criminal Police Organization or Interpol, Moldovan border police said on Sunday.
Yakovenko is being held in pre-trial detention, the press service of the border police announced.
Viorel Tentu, head of Interpol in Moldova, said in a statement that Yakovenko was on the list after accusations of bribery and corruption by Belarus.
A search of public records of wanted persons on the Interpol website for Yakovenko’s name yielded no results on Sunday night.
Officials from Ukraine and Belarus could not be reached for comment immediately.
Yakovenko was elected to the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, from the Donetsk region, according to information on the parliament’s website.
Fears have risen recently that Moldova could be embroiled in the conflict in neighboring Ukraine after pro-Russian separatists in a breakaway region reported a series of attacks and explosions there, which they blamed on Kyiv.
Moldova, a country of about 2.6 million people trapped between Ukraine and Romania, has taken a decisive pro-Western political turn since President Maya Sandu took office in late 2020, defeating Moscow’s incumbent president.
The country has an ethnic Romanian majority, but a large and influential Russian-speaking minority and close economic ties with Moscow.
(Report by Alexander Thanas in Chisinau; Writing in Melbourne by Lydia Kelly; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Add Comment