This agreement is widely known in Ukraine as the “Kharkiv Pact”, and allows Russia to keep its Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
Yanukovych was already sentenced to 13 years in prison in absentia for treason, in a case linked to a letter he sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 1, 2014, requesting the use of the Russian army and police to restore order in Ukraine.
Yanukovych fled to Russia in 2014 after mass protests.
Yanukovych could not be reached for comment, but he has previously denied all the accusations against him.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said that a court in Kyiv had ordered the arrest of Yanukovych on Monday, because “the Kharkiv Charter enabled Russia to increase the number of forces it had in Ukraine and to seize and annex Crimea in 2014”.
The court said his actions “violated the constitution, undermined Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, defense immunity, and economic and international security, and provided assistance to a foreign state.”
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