In event of the capture of Kyiv, Kremlin had two plans: Medvedchuk and Yanukovych

The Russian leadership considered two traitorous politicians who were supposed to seize power in Ukraine after the Russian invasion: Viktor Medvedchuk [Ukrainian businessman and pro-Russian politician to whose daughter Putin is godfather – ed.] and, in case of failure on the battlefield, the fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych.  

Source: article of Ukrainska Pravda Two plans of the Kremlin. Who should have ruled Ukraine if Kyiv had fallen

Plan "A" Medvedchuk

Quote from a high-ranking Ukrainska Pravda source in intelligence: "If you think that the Russians had a clear plan for who would come to lead here, you are very much mistaken. The main thing is that our government falls. According to their plan, on the third day. On the tenth day, control over the entire country. And the names of those who will specifically be the new ‘government’ were not that important to them...

Medvedchuk saw himself playing first fiddle. A decent role could have been played by Sivkovych [Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Yanukovych's time, who is hiding in the Russian Federation – ed.]. He has been working for the Federal Security Service for a long time, and he was trained to manage pseudo-authorities, select personnel for various positions, and so on. But there was no final layout of who should go to what positions."

Details: One of Sivkovych's former influential faction members said that he organised the "evacuation" of Yanukovych from Crimea to Russia.

Although other sources of Ukrainska Pravda, neither in the Security Service of Ukraine nor in political circles, provided any information about a possible special role for Sivkovych after the potential occupation.

As well as about possible participation in collaborating structures of Yevhen Murayev, whom the Western media called a potential "prime minister" of the captured Ukraine even before the invasion.

As for the Kremlin's political plans to govern Ukraine after the capture, there were at least two of them.

The first project was predictably connected with the person closest to Putin in Ukraine: Viktor Medvedchuk.

However, after the introduction of sanctions and the delivery of several suspicions in 2021, Medvedchuk could not engage in either business or politics.

"Vitia is gradually going nuts. He is constantly sitting at home, these restrictions psychologically weaken him, because he has nothing to do," one of the members of the Opposition Platform – For Life faction [a pro-Russian political party led by Medvedchuk, now banned in Ukraine – ed.] described Medvedchuk's condition at the end of January last year.

Sources in his party claim that Medvedchuk was one of the few people in Ukraine who knew for sure about the Russian invasion.

"I do not doubt that Putin will fight. And not least because I see how Vitia is already ‘baking loaves and collecting salt’ to meet his [daughter’s godfather] in Kyiv," deputy of the Opposition Platform – For Life, who quietly left the country two weeks before the invasion for many months, told Ukrainska Pravda on 25 January 2022.

A few weeks before the invasion, deputies from his group in the Rada asked him several times if Russia was preparing for a full-scale attack on Ukraine.

Quote from one of the current deputies, who was close to Medvedchuk: "We should have known this at least so that the families could be taken out, but Vitia, on the contrary, was calming us. He said: ‘No, No, this is rattling weapons to raise the stakes. Stay where you are’."

On 23 February, the day before the invasion began, Medvedchuk began to behave strangely.

He unexpectedly postponed meetings with his colleagues, saying that he was busy. For a person who is under house arrest around the clock, this looked strange. Until that day, Medvedchuk seldom refused to meet with his people.

The weekend to which Medvedchuk postponed the celebration was supposed to be just the third day after the start of the great war.

On the morning of 24 February, Medvedchuk stopped communicating.

He appeared in the Opposition Platform – For Life chat only once – on the third day of the invasion, 26 February.

On that day, the deputies of Medvedchuk's faction who remained in Kyiv were going to expel Illia Kyva from their ranks because of public support for Russian aggression.

And Viktor Medvedchuk, even despite the war, tried to convince that this should not be done. And still, he was able to postpone the expulsion of Kyva due to his influence on the deputies, whom he added to the list personally. However, only until 3 March.

A year after the outbreak of the great war, both Medvedchuk's associates and members of Zelenskyy's team were convinced that bringing Viktor Medvedchuk to power was "Plan A" in the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian special services claim that the encircled Verkhovna Rada should have removed the head of the parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, and, accordingly, Medvedchuk would have become acting president.

Viktor Medvedchuk was hiding in Kyiv, in a luxurious three-storey house near Protasiv Yar. In April, he tried to escape while wearing camouflage. In this form, he was caught by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).

The traitor was held in the SSU pre-trial detention centre until 21 September, and on 22 September, he was exchanged for 200 defenders of Azovstal.

Now Medvedchuk lives with his family in Moscow. And all that remains for him is to try to position himself in the Kremlin as the main "expert" on Ukraine.

Plan "B" Yanukovych

Quote from a source in the SSU: "After Medvedchuk's 'disappearance', the Russians considered the option of Yanukovych's return to Ukraine. He had to declare again that he was legitimate, and all the other nonsense."

In particular, at the end of 2021, the Ukrainian media reported that "Yanukovych wants to return the status of President".

The fugitive decided to file a lawsuit against the District Administrative Court of the city of Kyiv, demanding to recognize that the Rada has no right to deprive the title of President outside the impeachment procedure. The parliament also took away the right to be called the president of Ukraine by a simple resolution.

"Yanukovych's lawyers were surprisingly smart. They went to the District Administrative Court of the city of Kyiv to appeal not the decisions of the council, but the issue of procedure. This was a legal loophole. And if the District Administrative Court of the city of Kyiv recognized procedural violations, the consequence would be to invalidate the decision of the parliament," one of the key lawyers of Zelenskyy's team explains to Ukrainska Pravda.

Quote from a source of Ukrainska Pravda: "Smirnov called the head of the District Administrative Court of the city of Kyiv, Vovk, and asked: ‘What are these claims, why do you register them when the procedural terms have long expired?’ And Pasha assured him: ‘They’re registered to follow the procedures, nothing will happen, do not worry’."

One of the former top officials of the Yanukovych time claims that "the Russians relied on ‘non-critical imports’: the return to Ukraine of all those who fled after 2014. There are enough fugitives for several Cabinets of Ministers. And if they returned, it would be enough to fill a few main positions, and then the system itself would start generating people for places at the bottom."

To prevent the District Administrative Court of the city of Kyiv judges from making any decisions, on 2 March, the state judicial administration disconnected the court from access to the Register of court decisions.

To block the court, the SSU was connected to the Office of the President of Ukraine: "We have connected the fifth service, the one that is responsible for the courts. They broke into the building, tore out all possible carriers so that the District Administrative Court of the city of Kyiv could not work at all, and took the servers with them. Until April, the court did not work."

Yanukovych's plane was last seen in Minsk on 7 March last year. After that, the negotiations moved to Istanbul, and Yanukovych disappeared from view.

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