REUTERS

The former governor of the National Bank of Ukraine has been invited to the United States to address lawmakers after she was nearly run over and her home set ablaze.

Representative Marcy Kaptur (Democrat-Ohio) told a Washington conference on September 18 that she was troubled by the attacks against Valeriya Gontareva, RFE/RL reported.

"I am trying to get her here to address us in some manner," said Kaptur, who is the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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"We are following those events very closely, and the idea that fear and crime and murder and destruction are the path of the future is one that we simply don't accept."

Read alsoEx-NBU head Gontareva says hit by car in downtown London

As UNIAN reported, Gontareva earlier said her country house in the village of Horenychi outside Kyiv had been destroyed amid an apparent arson attack with the use of a bottle with petrol in the early hours of September 17. The house completely burned down.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov called the fire "a manifestation of criminal pressure."

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, said he expected the police to investigate the incident as soon as possible.

According to earlier reports, on August 26, 2019, Gontareva was struck by a car when crossing the road in London and was hospitalized. London police are investigating the incident and the driver has yet to be found.

Gontareva also said that on the night of September 5, the car of her eldest son's wife whose name is also Valeriya Gontareva was doused with gasoline and burned in central Kyiv.

Gontareva was the NBU's governor in 2016, when PrivatBank, which was co-owned by Kolomoisky, was returned to state ownership.