Ukrainian law enforcement has taken into custody the man responsible for organizing an illegal referendum on Donetsk Oblast declaring independence from Ukraine in 2014.
The Security Service of Ukraine and the General Prosecutor’s Office detained Roman Lyagin on June 14 in Kyiv.
Lyagin stands accused of state treason for “assisting the Russian Federation and its representatives in subversive activities against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” according to a statement by the General Prosecutor’s Office.
Lyagin was charged with organizing and running an illegitimate referendum on independence for the self-proclaimed, Kremlin-backed “Donetsk People’s Republic” at the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The prosecution also accuses Lyagin of heading the pseudo-state’s “central election commission” and its “ministry of labor and social policy” in 2014-2016.
However, in 2016, Lyagin criticized the leaders of the Russian-backed insurgents. After falling out with them, he was reportedly imprisoned by his former comrades. After that, he went to live in Russian-occupied Crimea. Later, he returned to Ukrainian territory controlled by the government in Kyiv.
In March 2019, Nataliya Veselova, a member of the Ukrainian parliament with the Samopomich party, claimed that Lyagin participated in a special program of the Security Service of Ukraine that allows former fighters of the Russian-backed insurgents to voluntarily defect to the Ukrainian side and avoid criminal charges for their previous actions.
Later, however, the SBU denied Lyagin had taken part in the program.
Under Ukrainian law, individuals convicted of high treason face between 12 and 15 years in prison.
