KYV. May 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ex-Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces of Ukraine Volodymyr Zamana, who is accused of treason, has said ex-National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov and ex-President Petro Poroshenko ordered his criminal prosecution, adding that Ukraine's Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios is "a master at fraud."

"I am actually the only security official from the times of Yanukovych who remained on the territory of Ukraine, therefore I became the object of persecution," he said.

Zamana said he was not ordered to bring the army to high alert during Russia's annexation of Ukraine.

As reported, on February 25, 2019, law enforcement officers detained Zamana and notified him of suspicion of high treason. Kyiv's Pechersky district court on February 26 remanded him to pretrial custody without bail until March 27, 2019. On May 16, 2019 the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine completed its pretrial investigation against Zamana, who was released from custody on May 24, 2019.

Zamana served as Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces from February 18, 2012 to February 19, 2014.