Ukraine's Interior Ministry has added Oksana Marchenko, the wife of pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, to its wanted list the same day that she was hit with sanctions from the British government.
According to a statement by the ministry on April 12, Marchenko is suspected of financing actions to forcibly disrupt Ukraine's constitutional order, seize power, and change the state borders of Ukraine.
Last month, a court in Kyiv froze Marchenko's assets, estimated at 440 million hryvnyas ($11.9 million), in relation to a 6.8 percent stake she holds in the Dniprospetstal steelworks in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya.
Earlier in February, another court ruling froze and impounded assets and property in Ukraine held by Marchenko with an estimated value of 5.6 billion hryvnyas ($152.5 million). The court said Marchenko used some of her companies and businesses under her names "to carry out sabotage against Ukraine."
Marchenko is currently outside of Ukraine.
Marchenko's husband, Viktor Medvedchuk, is a longtime Ukrainian political fixture and reportedly a godfather to Russian President Vladimir Putin's daughter.
Medvedchuk was one of Ukraine’s wealthiest individuals with a fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, including energy assets in Russia.
Ukraine sanctioned Medvedchuk in February 2021, freezing his assets, and took three television stations it said belonged to him off the air for promoting Russian propaganda.
He was arrested in 2021 on charges of treason and terrorism financing and later placed under house arrest on bail.
The United Kingdom announced on April 12 that it had added Marchenko to its sanctions list for being "associated with a person who is or has been involved in destabilizing Ukraine or undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine, namely Viktor Medvedchuk."
Shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February last year, Medvedchuk escaped house arrest, but was rearrested in April while trying to flee to Russia.
In June, a court in Ukraine banned the Medvedchuk-led pro-Russia Opposition Platform -- For Life (OPZZh) political party.
In September, Ukrainian authorities handed the 68-year-old politician over to Russia in a prisoner exchange.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has since stripped Medvedchuk and three other pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians off their Ukrainian citizenship.