Kyiv Regional Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment in the criminal proceedings against former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara on the fact of premeditated murder.

According to the press service of the prosecutor's office, now the pretrial investigation in the proceedings has been completed. The indictment was sent to the court for consideration on the merits.

Thus, the former minister faces up to 15 years in prison.

As reported, on February 21, special line 102 received a message from a resident of the village of Chaiky, Kyiv region, that a man who had come to visit from the capital committed suicide in the house. Later, information appeared that Starytsky was shot in Kozhara's house. The preliminary version of the police is suicide. The shot was fired from a Jericho 941 pistol, registered to the former foreign minister.

Starytsky co-founded Atlantic Group in 1992. He managed the Inter television channel and headed the international communications department of the Ukrainian State Television and Radio Company.

On February 24, the National Police said that they were probing into the death of entrepreneur Starytsky as a murder. The police found out that there were three people in the house: Kozhara with his wife and their guest. All of them drank alcohol. Kozhara's wife said that she was in another room when the guest fired his head using her husband's gun.

On March 25, Deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko said that Kozhara was detained on suspicion of murdering Starytsky.

On March 26, Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv chose Kozhara as a preventive measure in the form of detention for a period of 60 days with an alternative to bail in the amount of UAH 14.83 million.