Interpol has put eight former senior Ukrainian officials on its international wanted list, however Ukraine had filed requests for the issue of red notices for 22 ex-officials, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema has said.

"Persons who have been put on the international wanted list are [ex-president of Ukraine] Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych, [his son] Oleksandr Viktorovych Yanukovych, [ex-prime minister] Mykola Yanovych Azarov, [Ukrainian businessman] Serhiy Vitaliyovych Kurchenko, [former health minister] Raisa Vasylyivna Bohatyriova, [former first vice premier, former NBU governor] Serhiy Hennadiyoych Arbuzov, [former energy minister] Eduard Anatoliyovych Stavytsky, and [former finance minister] Yuriy Volodymyrovych Kolobov," said Yarema.

The prosecutor general noted that former interior minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko was not on this list.

When asked why Zakharchenko was not on the list, he said: "This is a question for Interpol. We have submitted materials for 22 people... The main motivation behind Interpol's decision is that they do not put persons who committed war crimes on the wanted list (these include four categories of people: those who committed crimes related to persecution on ethnic grounds, religious grounds, war crimes and political ones). For some reason Interpol's leadership regards some of the former politicians and former law enforcement officers, whom we requested to be put on the international wanted list, as war criminals," he explained.

Yarema also said that with this in mind the Prosecutor General's Office has charged Yanukovych and other former officials with economic crimes.

He recalled that Viktor Yanukovych was put on the international wanted list on the basis of criminal proceedings on the embezzlement of public funds during the sale of the state-owned communications operator Ukrtelecom.

"I hope that Interpol officers will continue to carry out this work and that other persons who were involved in crimes during the Revolution of Dignity will be put on the international wanted list," the prosecutor general said.