KHARKIV. March 11 (Interfax) - Mykhailo Dobkin, former head of the Kharkiv region's state administration, could not get his passports back from the State Border Guard Service officials, who took it at passport control in the international airport Kharkiv on Friday.
"I see the failure to return my passport as a violation of my rights as a citizen of Ukraine. They have no rights, no grounds to do that. I am saying officially that I am not trying to leave the country. I am in Kharkiv," Dobkin told reporters after trying to get his passport back for 1.5 hours.
Dobkin also said he intends to demand that the State Border Guard Service explain to him who is holding his passport and on what grounds.
Responding to a question about the criminal case opened against him by the Ukrainian Security Service, Dobkin said he was informed about that by phone. "I think opening a criminal case may be a way to get out of the situation, which they initiated. If they have things to charge me with, I am ready to bear liability. I have nothing to be afraid of," he said.
The press center for the Ukrainian Security Service reported earlier on Friday Dobkin had been issued an official warning by the Ukrainian Security Service that he could be charged with a crime enshrined by Article 109 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (actions aimed at forcible change or overthrowing the constitutional system of seizure of state power).
The press center recalled that the Main Investigations Department of the Ukrainian Security Service on February 27 opened a criminal case against Dobkin based on Part 2 of Article
110 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (encroachments on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine by an authority) for making public calls for changing the borders of Ukraine in violation of the procedures established by the Constitution