Law enforcement agencies received information about the preparation of an attempt on the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko, the head of the National Police, Igor Klymenko, said at a specially convened briefing.
"From day one, we worked in close cooperation with the Prosecutor General's Office. And our joint work, I think, will lead to the fact that these criminals will never be able to go free," said the head of the National Police.
According to the investigation, the attempt was connected with the activities of Leshchenko in 2018, even before he took the ministerial post.
The customers of the murder were a US citizen and a Ukrainian citizen. They are suspected under four articles of the criminal code: kidnapping, extortion, causing grievous bodily harm and attempted murder.
Now the customers are in a detention center, they face life imprisonment.
Roman Leshchenko came to power after Volodymyr Zelensky came to power. In 2019, he appointed him the commissioner for land issues, at the beginning of 2020 - the head of the State Geocadastre, and six months later - the minister of agrarian policy.
Leshchenko is the owner of the agricultural company "Progress", he owns 50% of the shares in the companies "Progress-milk" and LLC "Illumin".
