Treason charges have been brought against three Ukrainians who supported the Donald Trump campaign‘s attempts to damage the Biden family.
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and Mr. Trump’s personal attorney at the time, spearheaded the 2019 campaign.
The focus was on unverified claims that Joe Biden, while serving as vice president, engaged in corrupt activities with Ukraine.
According to the Security Service (SBU) of Ukraine, Russian military intelligence (GRU) funded the three guys who were accused.
It further stated that they have tarnished Ukraine’s image overseas by exploiting a “tense political situation”.
Oleksandr Dubinsky, a current member of parliament, Andriy Derkach, a former prosecutor, and Kostyantyn Kulyk are the three persons accused.
Dubinsky has refuted the allegations.
According to reports, all three are part of an agent network run by Russian General Vladimir Alekseyev, the GRU’s deputy chief.
According to the charges, they were paid $10 million (£8 million) to engage in “information subversive activities” about the 2020 US election.
The men are charged with aiding in the propagation of the myth that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the most recent US elections.
The accusations directed at Mr Biden included the commercial activities of his son Hunter, a director of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company.
Because Mr. Biden had been looking into Burisma, Mr. Trump and his associates claimed that Mr. Biden, as Barack Obama’s vice president, had pushed for the dismissal of Viktor Shokin, the top prosecutor in Ukraine.
Hunter Biden has since filed a lawsuit against Mr. Giuliani for “completely abrogating” his privacy rights through the former New York mayor’s search for damaging information related to the Biden family.
Ukrainian authorities did not clearly identify Mr. Dubinsky but used a nickname believed to have come from Russian intelligence calling him “Burtino. ”
However, the lawmaker identified himself in a Telegram post, saying that a court in Kyiv had ordered his detention for 60 days based on the charges against him. Mr Dubinsky denied any wrongdoing in a series of messages on Telegram and insisted he was the victim of political repression directed against him by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.
He faces up to 15 years in prison and confiscation of assets if convicted. Derkach and Kulyk fled Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022, the SBU said.
Dubinsky, Derkach and Kulyk were sanctioned by the US government in the final days of the Trump administration for their alleged efforts to sabotage the 2020 US election. The Ministry of Finance identified Mr.
Derkach as a Russian agent. He was named in a nearly 1,000-page report released by the US Senate Intelligence Committee on Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election.
Mr Derkach met publicly with Mr. Giuliani in Ukraine in 2019 as part of their efforts to link Hunter Biden to corruption in Ukraine. He also appeared with Mr. Giuliani in right-wing US media before the 2020 election, where they shared details of their alleged investigation.
In addition, while serving as deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, Mr. Kulyk wrote a 2019 memo calling on Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board of directors.
It included unsubstantiated claims that he had evidence that President Joe Biden had illegally enriched himself, which allegedly prompted Mr. Giuliani to seek incriminating information in Ukraine. Mr Giuliani, like Mr. Trump, faces many legal issues in the US related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Mr Trump also urged Ukrainian lawmakers to investigate Hunter Biden, including his phone call with President Zelensky.
Democrats in Congress impeached the former US president for refusing military aid to Ukraine while pressuring Mr. ZelenskyMr Trump was later acquitted by the US Senate with the support of the Republican Party.