The former chief of staff for Ukraine’s armed forces has been detained on charges of high treason.
Prosecutor-General Yury Lutsenko wrote on Facebook that General Volodymyr Zamana was taken into custody on February 25.
According to Lutsenko, Zamana is suspected of illegally dissolving 70 military garrisons and units, including air-defense missile brigades and battalions, and 19 air force units, and reducing a tactical aviation brigade to a squadron from 2012-2014.
Zamana's "illegal" actions resulted in the liquidation of military registration and army-draft offices, which by 2014 weakened the Ukrainian Army and helped Russia annex Crimea and helped incite separatism in Ukraine's east, Lutsenko wrote.
"Additionally, Zamana personally issued a directive subordinating all units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Crimean tactical group to the Navy commander, which actually paralyzed Ukrainian military personnel’s resistance to the Russian aggression," Lutsenko wrote.
Ukrainian Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said earlier in the day that Zamana had been formally notified of being considered a suspect in a treason case.
With reporting by UNIAN and Gordon