1.5 billion dollars from Yanukovych’s accounts and his entourage were returned to the budget of Ukraine

The court decision on the return to the budget of Ukraine $ 1.5 billion from the accounts of the fugitive ex-president of the country Viktor Yanukovych and his environment stored in Oschadbank entered into legal force. As reported on the website of the Council of National Security and Defense of the country, this was announced by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council by Alexander Turchinov and the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuri Lutsenko.

As Turchinov said, the leadership of Oschadbank, together with the State Certificate of Ukraine, has already begun to transfer confiscated funds to state accounts.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called the return of Yanukovych's money to the state "restoration of justice". “Each penny of these 40 billion hryvnias was stolen from the pockets of every citizen of our state,” the Ukrainian leader emphasized.

Poroshenko came up with the initiative to spend the returned money on defense needs. "Of course, I, as the president, will turn to the parliament, the government will also make appropriate proposals. And the parliamentary coalition, the people's deputies will make an extremely important decision, first of all about strengthening the defense capability of our state," the president said. Speech, he explained, is about the purchase of electronic equipment, new weapons and construction of housing for the military.

The head of state proposed to spend another part of the funds, in particular, to support the poor, the development of rural medicine and infrastructure projects.

In November 2016, the Chairman of the Board of Oschadbank Andrei Pyshny first announced the funds frozen on the bank’s accounts of Yanukovych and his close associates, in particular the ex-Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov.

In May 2014, Switzerland froze the assets of Yanukovych and his entourage, which were in the country's banks. The Swiss prosecutor's office instituted five criminal cases of laundering money related to these accounts. In total, about 140 million euros were stored on the arrested accounts. Since then, freezing of accounts has been extended every year.

A month earlier, acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleg Makhnitsky reported that Yanukovych's entourage brought to Russia at least 32 billion dollars .