Tymoshenko named the people's deputy she spoke to: «servant» Kopytin from Mykolaiv

Yulia Tymoshenko at a meeting on 16 January. Photo: NikVesti

Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshchyna party, claimed that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau recorded her conversation with the help of Mykolaiv people's deputy Ihor Kopytin («Servant of the People» party).

She made this statement during a court hearing on 16 January at the High Anti-Corruption Court.

At the beginning of the hearing, the prosecutor of the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office stated that the meeting with the unknown people's deputy took place in December in her office. According to the prosecutor's office, Yuliia Tymoshenko offered him $10,000 for voting in the Verkhovna Rada. She also offered to involve other poeple's deputies for the same amount. After that, he passed the information on to the NABU.

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Before the trial began, Yuliia Tymoshenko told reporters that no such conversation had taken place and that it was not her on the recordings. However, after the prosecutor's speech, she asked the judge to give her the floor and noted that, given certain circumstances, she remembered meeting with Ihor Kopytin. But the recording was fake.

She stated that the NABU had opened a criminal case against the Mykolaiv people's deputy, and that he was acting under pressure from anti-corruption authorities.

«I meet with hundreds of people's deputies. That's my job in parliament. Now we've put all the pieces together, and I can say that, based on the timing and everything else, she was with Kopytin. I want to comment on that. He is not just a people's deputy; he is under criminal investigation by the NABU. He is under pressure from the NABU to essentially carry out their orders. You know that there are agreements to dig up something somewhere, and we will drop your criminal cases in return,» Yuliia Tymoshenko said.

According to Tymoshenko, Kopytin repeatedly asked to meet with her, arguing that he no longer supports Volodymyr Zelenskyy's policies.

«Mr Kopytin asked to meet with me once, twice, three times. He said he no longer wanted to be in the faction, did not want to work with the majority or the president, said that the laws being passed were anti-Ukrainian, and he offered to cooperate many times. I can say that we are definitely looking to cooperate with deputies who will not support bills that are adopted against the national interest. But I can tell you that Kopytin was definitely interested in closing his criminal case. And that is why he is most likely, because there are some fragments of conversations here that I can remember. Kopytin passed it on to NABU so that it would all be compiled, so that it would not correspond to reality, and simply to show his merit to NABU,» she added.

On 14 January, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine handed a notice of suspicion to Yuliia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshchyna faction, for offering unlawful benefits to members of parliament. Later, NABU published conversations in which Tymoshenko can be heard talking to an unknown MP to whom she offered money for voting.

The searches at the Batkivshchyna party office became known on 13 January. On the morning of 14 January, Batkivshchyna faction leader Yuliia Tymoshenko confirmed the information about the searches at the party office, which, according to her, lasted all night.

The Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office reported that on 16 January, the prosecution would request a preventive measure for Tymoshenko in the form of a 50 million hryvnia bail and certain obligations.

On 15 January, Tymoshenko stated that her accounts had been frozen.

Businessman Ihor Kolomoiskyi, who is currently on trial himself, commented on the searches conducted by NABU at the office of Batkivshchyna faction leader Yuliia Tymoshenko in connection with vote buying in parliament.