KIEV, June 03. /ITAR-TASS/. The Verkhovna Rada has sanctioned the arrest of one of the leaders of the Ukrainian opposition Oleh Tsariov, who criticized the recent presidential election in Ukraine held amidst the civil war. A total of 235, slightly more than the required number of 226, have supported Tsariov's arrest.
Oleh Tsariov had been running for the post of the Ukrainian president, but he withdrew from the election campaign on his own free will. Tsariov also called on the other presidential candidates, whose basic electorate was concentrated in the south-east of Ukraine, to quit the presidential race. "The election being held amidst the civil war should be boycotted," Tsariov said then.
Tsariov in an interview with Rossiya24 TV channel on May 25 refused to recognize the presidential election in Ukraine as legitimate and called into question the organization of the elections. "There is no talk about the election being legitimate. Donbass, Luhansk and Donetsk had not voted for any presidential candidate. Poroshenko was supported by voters mostly in the west of Ukraine. Therefore, we insist that it was a choice only of half of Ukraine," Tsariov told Vesti 24 TV channel.
Last week, parliament-appointed Acting Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnitsky announced that the Prosecutor General's office had been investigating several criminal cases against Tsariov, who is accused of making "public calls to overthrow the existing constitutional system in Ukraine, change its state borders and stage acts of disobedience, which entailed grave consequences and caused many casualties among law enforcers and peaceful civilians".