KYIV -- A court in Ukraine has frozen more assets belonging to Oksana Marchenko, the wife of pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on April 25 that the assets, estimated to have a value of more than 1 billion hryvnyas (more than $27 million), are related to a 13.7 percent stake Marchenko owns in the Zaporizhzhya Ferroalloy Plant in the city of Zaporizhzhya that is the largest metallurgic facility in Europe.
"The freezing of these assets will prevent their reregistration under other fake names and will allow them to be transferred for our state's needs," the SBU's statement said.
Earlier, Ukrainian courts froze and impounded assets and property in Ukraine held by Marchenko with an estimated value of 6 billion hryvnyas (more than $162 million).
On April 12, Ukraine's Interior Ministry added Marchenko, who is out of Ukraine, to its wanted list, saying she is suspected of financing actions to forcibly disrupt Ukraine's constitutional order, seize power, and change the state borders 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 off the air three television stations it said belonged to him for promoting Russian propaganda.
He was arrested in 2021 on charges of treason and terrorism financing and later placed under house arrest on bail.
Shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, 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 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 of their Ukrainian citizenship.