A 42-year-old man has been arrested at Paphos airport in connection with an attempted kidnapping which took place in Larnaca, the police said on Monday.
The man was arrested at around 3pm after arriving at the airport aboard an inbound flight.
He was then taken to the Larnaca police station, where, the police said, he “exercised his right to remain silent”.
It is expected that he will appear in court on Monday to be issued a remand.
The incident occurred on November 20, with three people having been arrested in connection with the case so far, while Ukrainian media has reported that the victim is the country’s former energy minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn.
Demchyshyn served in the post between 2014 and 2016, though he now finds himself on the country’s wanted list, with it reported that he offered assistance to pro-Russian paramilitaries in the east of Ukraine and illegally procured coal from areas of the country occupied by Russia.
He has been the subject of an international arrest warrant since 2022, but the Cypriot justice ministry denied a Ukrainian extradition request in 2023, telling newspaper Phileleftheros that the legal service “considered Ukraine’s motives to be political”.
It has subsequently been reported that Demchyshyn is “active in Cyprus’ land development sector”.
