Russia intended to use Ukraine’s constitutional court headed by a pro-Putin loyalist to reinstall Victor Yanukovich, who was ousted as president during the country’s revolution in 2013-14, according to high-ranking Ukrainian official.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told Ukraine’s Channel 24 that Russia has been devising the “legal” strategy for Yanukovich’s return since at least February 2021 and singled out Oleksandr Tupitskiy, the head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, as the key component.
Danilov also confirmed that Putin, who anticipated a short war, sent Yanukovich to Belarus more than three months ago to be reinstalled as the president after the fall of Kyiv.
Danilov claimed that the first phase of the “legal option” was put in motion in December when Yanukovich filed a lawsuit against Ukraine’s Parliament in the Kyiv District Administrative Court. The lawsuit advanced to the discovery phase and was set to begin in late February. The exiled president called his removal from office in 2014 illegal.
“Our judges are a little odd. The man has had nothing to do with our country for eight years and suddenly they accept the lawsuit,” Danilov said.
The pro-Russian judges, headed by Tupitsky, were going to be the next step in the “legal option.”
“These judges should be investigated by the Security Services of Ukraine right now. But, we’re at war. Some things will have to wait,” Danilov added.
The pro-Russian Yanukovich appointed Tupitsky as one of 14 judges on the Constitutional Court in 2013, and in 2019 he was elected as the head of the court.
To the public and the newly elected executive, headed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his election was a clear sign of the court’s Russian sympathies. Some of Ukraine’s most powerful courts are packed with pro-Russian loyalists.
Despite an investigation into corruption by Tupitsky gathered by Ukrainian and U.S. authorities and Zelenskyy’s relentless attempts to remove him, the judge remained. His term was set to expire in March.
He was indicted on March 25 and the General Prosecutor's Office in Ukraine issued a warrant for his arrest. A statement from the office cited accusations of bribery and subornation of perjury by Tupitsky.
“Tupitsky illegally left Ukraine on March 17, 2022. By doing so, he disregarded martial law and circumvented border and customs services procedures,” the statement said.
Tupitskiy is reportedly in Austria.
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