A letter from President Viktor Yanukovych to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in early 2014, the Kremlin tried to use at the UN to justify the Russian army's invasion of the Ukrainian Crimea. This was during a testimony at a meeting of the Obolonsky district court in the case of the state treasury of a runaway ex-president, Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN Security Council Vladimir Yelchenko said, LIGA correspondent reports.. net.

"Churkin (at that time, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, - Ed.. ) was very nervous at that time: he did not have enough information to justify what was happening in the Crimea. He tried to find arguments to convince the international community that everything is fine there, "the diplomat said..

According to Yelchenko, the Russians such a written appeal of Yanukovych "in a certain way allowed to legalize and explain" the appearance of the armed forces of the Russian Federation in the territory of Ukraine.

"From the Russian side, it was probably the main argument for protecting its position," said the former Ukrainian ambassador to Russia.

At the same time, according to the diplomat, for the international community this letter did not become a basis for agreement with the position of the Kremlin. Most members of the UN Security Council supported the position of the official Kiev.

Yanukovych's letter to Putin asking for the use of the Russian army "to restore law, peace, law and order, stability and protection of the Ukrainian population" was sent on March 1, 2014.

On June 29, 2017, the court allowed Yanukovych's conviction in absentia. The fugitive initially said from Russia that he would not take part in the trial, but in December his lawyers returned to the meetings.

In this case, the court will interrogate 16 witnesses of the defense side (out of 138 declared).

Yanukovych passes by suspect in criminal case on h. 1 st. 111 (state treasury), h. 5 items. 27 and h. 3 items. 110 (aiding in deliberate acts committed with the aim of changing the boundaries of the territory and the state border in violation of the constitutional order), as well as. 5 items. 27 and h. 2 items. 437 (aiding in waging an aggressive war) of the Criminal Code.