Ukraine detains top ally of ousted president

KIEV: Ukraine said it had detained a top ally of ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday, accusing him of causing harm to the “territorial integrity” of the crisis-hit country.

Law enforcement authorities detained Oleksandr Yefremov accusing him of “infringement on the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko wrote on Facebook.

Ukrainian media said Yefremov was arrested at Kiev airport as he was about to fly to Austria. He is the former head of Yanukovych’s parliamentary faction, the Regions Party.

Yanukovych was ousted during a 2014 pro-Western revolt, after which Russia seized the Crimean peninsula, fuelling a separatist uprising in the country’s east which has claimed some 9,500 lives.

Prior to his parliamentary career, Yefremov had governed Lugansk, one of the two eastern regions which has declared independence.  Prosecutors had earlier investigated his possible involvement in financing pro-Russian rebels.