Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said that all of the defendant's rights guaranteed by Ukrainian legislation will be observed in the court proceedings to hear a high treason case against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The proceedings would not be the proceedings of revenge.

"The court proceedings that have never been held before in Ukraine will start on May 4. Prosecutor General's Office on behalf of the state of Ukraine will accuse the former president of high treason. These proceedings are not only about citizen Yanukovych. These proceedings are about their Kremlin patrons who used the document signed by Yanukovych as a fig leaf to occupy Ukrainian Crimea, to ensanguine Ukrainian Donbas and to try to bring our country down to marrowbones," Lutsenko said in a video message posted on the website of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) on Monday, May 1.

Lutsenko said that these proceedings will be "in marked contrast to political rigged trials of the Yanukovych times."

"I am sure that all of the defendant's rights guaranteed by Ukrainian legislation would be observed during the proceedings. I believe that the future court judgment is an important one not only from the point of view of real justice, but also as a warning to all those who would dare to take the path of high treason in the future," Lutsenko said.

He said that Ukrainian prosecutors will represent not only the state of Ukraine, but they would "speak on behalf of thousands of killed people, dozens of thousands of wounded people, millions of internally displaced persons from Ukrainian Crimea and Donbas."

It was reported earlier that the Kyiv Obolonsky District Court summoned Yanukovych to a hearing on May 4, 2017 as a person accused in a high treason case.