Ukraine Lines Up Plans to Sell a Sanctioned Politician's Yacht

The government of Ukraine is lining up plans to sell a yacht that formerly belonged to Viktor Medvedchuk, the pro-Russian politician who was captured in Kyiv in the early days of the Russian invasion.

Medvedchuk, a pro-Soviet lawyer by background, served a variety of leadership roles in pro-Russian political circles in Ukraine through the 2000s and 2010s. As head of the Ukraine's Choice party, he opposed pro-EU popular protests of 2013-14, the Euromaidan movement. In 2021, he was sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine for allegedly funneling money from his business in Russia to the pro-Russian paramilitary groups in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Several months later, he was charged with high treason and placed under house arrest.

In the runup to the invasion, Medvedchuk disappeared, and he was widely believed to be Moscow's preferred candidate to replace President Volodymyr Zelensky, the end goal of a plan for Russian forces to capture the capital and remove Zelensky from office. The Russian invasion stalled before reaching Kyiv, Zelensky remained in office, and Medvedchuk was tracked down and arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in April 2022. He was traded to Moscow in a prisoner-of-war swap five months later, part of a package deal for the return for 215 Ukrainian POWs.

While in exile in Russia, Medvedchuk has been accused of continued involvement in pro-Russian bribery and influence operations in Europe - notably an alleged $50,000 bribe to a British politician to make pro-Russian statements.

Medvedchuk's yacht is a 92-meter Feadship named Royal Romance. It has an elevator, a substantial pool, and accommodations for 14 guests. Croatian authorities arrested it on a request from Ukraine in March 2022, then transferred its management to the Ukrainian asset-recovery agency ARMA (National Agency for Tracing and Asset Management) in 2024. The agency's objective is to appraise the yacht and sell it, in accordance with a Ukrainian court order.

In a statement, ARMA said that the previous ownership is putting up "increased procedural resistance" to the sale, including attempts to slow the process down. "ARMA emphasizes that such resistance is an expected element of such processes, and the relevant risks have been brought to the attention of the competent authorities for an appropriate response," the agency said. Nonetheless, ARMA says that the sale process is "entering the final stage."