A Ukrainian lawmaker suspected of treason for allegedly cooperating with Russia’s military intelligence said on Wednesday a Kyiv court had ordered him detained for 60 days.
“The court supported the prosecution’s request to impose a remand on me in the form of detention for 60 days until Jan. 12, 2024,” Oleksandr Dubinsky said in a video posted on his Telegram channel, showing him in a building with a man in a Ukrainian security service uniform behind him.
Mr. Dubinsky did not detail the reason for his detention, but officials said he was formally notified this week that he was suspected of spreading misinformation about Ukraine’s political leadership.
Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said on Monday on Telegram that a politician was under suspicion of treason without naming the suspect, adding that the suspect was a member of a criminal organization financed by Russia’s military intelligence.
Lawmaker Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, first deputy head of the parliamentary committee on anti-corruption policy, and lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko both named Mr. Dubinsky as the subject of the accusation.
“Dubinsky received a [notice of] suspicion of state treason. He was searched today,” Mr. Honcharenko said on Telegram.
Mr. Dubinsky called the accusations fabricated and “based on the absolute lies of top state officials.”
Mr. Dubinsky’s arrest comes one day after he made a public appeal to former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson to report on his situation.
“I am publicly addressing journalist Tucker Carlson, who will not be afraid to cover the topic of political persecution of the only politician and former journalist in Ukraine, who openly spoke about corruption of the country’s senior officials,” he wrote on Telegram, further alleging the theft of U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine through its Ministry of Defense.
“I am the only one talking about this corruption, which is supported by numerous facts and journalistic investigations, and it is for this that they want to put me in jail on yet another trumped-up charges,” he said.
Mr. Dubinsky was expelled from the ruling Servant of the People party in 2021 after he was put on a U.S. sanctions list over alleged interference in the 2020 U.S. elections. He denied those accusations and continued to work in Parliament.
The SBU said that a Russia-backed criminal organization had been created in 2016 and included as well an ex-lawmaker, their aide, and an ex-prosecutor.
“It is established that on the instructions of the Russian special services, it organized events to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and complicate Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO,” the State Investigative Bureau said in a separate statement published on its website.
Mr. Dubinsky wrote on Telegram, “I am convinced that [Andriy] Ermak-[Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s chaotic attempts to put me under arrest and ban me from running social networks are connected not only with my criticism of the president and his entourage, but also with the desire to prevent this information from reaching foreign media and U.S. congressmen who arrive in Kiev in mid-November.”
In January 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on several Ukrainian individuals and entities, including Mr. Dubinsky, accusing them of U.S. election interference and associating with a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker linked to efforts by then President Donald Trump’s allies to research now-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Mr. Dubinsky’s arrest has yet to be officially confirmed.
Reuters contributed to this report.