KYIV -- Ukraine's top prosecutor says his office is investigating a previously obscure lawmaker on suspicion of treason after he presented associates of President Donald Trump with a controversial peace plan for Ukraine and Russia.



Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko told reporters on February 21 that Andriy Artemenko may have committed a treasonous offense in designing a plan to lease Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula to Russia in exchange for Kyiv regaining control of land held by Russia-backed separatists in the east.



The peace-for-sanctions-relief plan Artemenko claimed he co-authored thrust him into the spotlight on February 20 after The New York Times reported that it had wound up on the desk of Trump's short-lived national security adviser, Michael Flynn.



A document announcing the inquiry shared on Facebook by Lutsenko accuses Artemenko of carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine.

Such actions are punishable in Ukraine by 10 to 15 years in prison.



Artemenko, who was ousted on February 20 from the Radical Party, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reporting by Christopher Miller

