Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president left stateless after being stripped of his Ukrainian passport in July, was detained in downtown Kiev early on Tuesday amid dramatic scenes in which he fled to a rooftop after elite security forces stormed his apartment.

Tuesday’s chaotic developments mark the most recent spasm in a bitter falling out between Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko and the exiled former Georgian leader who has reinvented himself as a Ukrainian opposition figure, Financial Times reports.

The arrest fueled speculation that Mr Saakashvili would be deported to Georgia, where he lost his citizenship but faces criminal charges. Authorities said Tuesday’s arrest was linked to an investigation into assistance provided to criminal organisations and their activity. Ukrainian authorities have forcefully deported a handful of Mr Saakashvili’s associates to Georgia in recent weeks.

Mr Saakashvili has led a protest movement calling for Mr Poroshenko’s removal since making a high-stakes return to Ukraine in September after having his citizenship stripped while on a trip abroad. As authorities appeared to block his entry into Ukraine, supporters broke across at a border crossing with Poland to forcefully usher Mr Saakashvili into the country.

Addressing dozens of streetside supporters on Tuesday morning near the building entrance from the roof before being detained, Mr Saakashvili accused Ukraine’s president of colluding with other oligarchs to stall reforms and profit corruptly. He said: “Don’t submit to the will of Poroshenko. Poroshenko is a criminal … a thief and traitor.” Dozens of protests have been successfully blocking the police van from driving the arrested Mr Saakashvili away for the past hour. The van has driven about two blocks from the apartment but is stuck now as protestors are blocking it from going further.

There was no immediate comment on the development from Mr Poroshenko. In September he accused his former acquaintance from university days in Kiev of committing a “crime.”