Former head of the Party of Regions faction in the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Yefremov has said that the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) suspects him of "inciting ethnic conflict."

"Today, I have been invited to court again in connection with a different case: the case of incitement of interethnic conflict," he told reporters before visiting the PGO's main investigative department on Wednesday morning.

"They took three speeches I gave when I was a people's deputy in a conciliatory council meeting [between the heads of the parliament factions and groups] and at a press point [in the Verkhovna Rada] when the events in eastern [Ukraine were just beginning in April and in May 2014, and they are now using those statements to conclude that I allegedly said something that could be interpreted as the fanning of an ethnic conflict," Yefremov said.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that some fifty people have come to the building of the Main Investigative Department of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office to support the politician. These people are holding the national flags of Ukraine, flags of the Party of regions and posters saying "We Are Against Dictatorship, Stop Political Repression," etc.

Officers of the Ukrainian Prosecutor's General Office and the Ukrainian Security Service detained Yefremov on February 14. He is charged with abuse of office and forgery. The Kyiv Pechersky District Court ordered to arrest Yefremov and allowed him to post UAH 3.6 million in bail on Tuesday.