Ukrainian officials say that a man who has proclaimed himself to be "president of Southeastern Ukraine" will be tried in absentia in Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv.
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's office said on December 14 that charges of separatism and terrorism against Anatoliy Vizyr, the former chairman of Ukraine's Luhansk regional appeals court, have been sent to the court for trial.
Vizyr, who is believed to be in a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists, proclaimed himself in April 2014 to be president of a hypothetical state made up of Luhansk and four other regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Kharkiv, Mykolayiv, and Kherson.
Vizyr's announcement came around the start of the military conflict between the separatists and Ukrainian government forces that has has killed more than 9,000 people in eastern Ukraine.