EXCLUSIVE: Political rival of Volodymyr Zelensky wanted in Ukraine is fighting extradition from £2m pad owned by son of Tory Lord

A POLITICAL rival of Volodymyr Zelensky wanted in Ukraine for allegedly assaulting two men is being housed in a £2 million apartment owned by the son of a Conservative Peer.

Powerlifting MP Artem Dmytruk, 31, is accused of violently attacking a soldier and a police officer on 3 March 2022 and 5 October 2023 respectively, in Odesa and the country’s capital Kyiv.

Musclebound Dmytruk, a former member of Zelensky’s party, was arrested in the UK last year on an international arrest warrant from Ukraine after reportedly fleeing by trekking through forests in Moldova.

He was later freed on conditional bail by Westminster Magistrates' Court after a £30,000 security was paid to the court and must reside at the two-bedroom pad with a balcony.

The arrest warrant alleges that on March 3 2022 he assaulted a man named only as D Shapovalov close to Police Department Number Four in Odesa, causing him actual bodily harm.

A second charge he faces is that of inflicting grievous bodily harm on another man named as B Sirosa in an office in Kyiv on October 5 2023.

A report in The Kyiv Independent, after he left the country last August said the charges concerned separate assaults on a law enforcement officer and a soldier.

Dmytruk, who denies the offences and is contesting extradition, claims the case is politically motivated due to his opposition to a controversial law supported by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is trying to shut down the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

At a brief hearing at the court, which Dmytruk did not have to attend, the case was adjourned for a full hearing in June 2025.

The location of the apartment where he is bailed to live cannot be identified for legal reasons.

His landlord is the son of a Tory life peer.

The apartment's leasehold was purchased by a Conservative life Peer after he retired from the House of Lords, and his wife, before later being transferred to the ownership of their son.

Under strict bail conditions, Dmytruk is under an electronically-monitored curfew to stay at the address between 1am and 4am daily.

He must not leave the country and has surrendered his Ukrainian ID Card and diplomatic passport.

In a post on Telegram on August 24 last year, before fleeing Ukraine, Dmytruk said law enforcement officials had carried out a search of his hotel room in Kyiv and his apartment in Odesa.

He claimed that the search was politically motivated, as a result of his support for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, of which he has been a deacon.

He was first elected as an independent MP representing Odesa in 2019 and later joined Zelensky's the Servant of the People party.

According to Ukrainian reports he was subsequently expelled for taking a "number of pro-Russian" stances.

Dmytruk allegedly fled Ukraine by taking a taxi to the border with Moldova, then trekking through forests before flying into Rome and later onto the UK where he is said to have relatives.

The Ukraine government claims there are Russian spies within the UOC and it is connected to an ally of Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with a newspaper last September Dmytruk said the extradition concerned alleged hooliganism in connection with a rally in 2020, but this is not reflected in the European Arrest Warrant.

He also said priests from the UOC were fighting on the frontline in Ukraine against Russian forces.

He said: "Right now there is a political persecution going on against me and my family, against myself for my political views and my support for the UOC.

”I have no personal issues with Zelensky. It is simply the policies that I disagree with that I think are negatively affecting my constituents.”