Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been charged with abuse of power and alleged misuse of state funds while in office, PressTV reported.
Tymoshenko told reporters that she had been ordered to remain in Kiev during the criminal investigation, according to AFP.
She said that the country's authorities had opened a criminal investigation against her for allegedly misspending state funds Ukraine received from selling greenhouse emission quotas under the Kyoto Protocol.
"The money allotted for the Kyoto Protocol was not being spent," Tymoshenko said on Monday.
"We used funds from a single line item of the budget, one that had no purpose or designation."
Tymoshenko stepped down as prime minister in early March following her loss to pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych in a hard-fought presidential election battle.
She was a key figure in Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution but later became tied down with internal political disputes after falling out with former President Viktor Yushchenko.