Fugitive pro-Russian MP faces extradition from UAE to Ukraine—report
Fedir Khristenko (Photo: ОПЗЖ)
Fedir Khristenko, a Ukrainian MP representing the now-banned Opposition Platform—For Life party, could be extradited from Dubai to Ukraine in the coming days and stand trial on treason charges, Ukrainska Pravda reported on Sept. 5, citing law enforcement and political sources.
On Aug. 13, Ukraine’s SBU security service placed Khristenko on its wanted list. He left the country before Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022 and has lived in the UAE ever since.
On July 21, prosecutors charged him with high treason in absentia. Investigators believe Russia’s FSB recruited Khristenko during Viktor Yanukovych’s 2010-2014 presidency. The SBU says he acted as a liaison for Armen Sargsyan, a Russian gangster wanted by Ukrainian authorities since 2014 (Sargsyan was assassinated in a bomb explosion in Moscow on Feb. 3, 2025). It also alleges Khristenko has close ties to FSB resident Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, Moscow’s unofficial curator of its DNR statelet in occupied Donetsk Oblast.
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