Ex-Ukraine chief on lam
Wanted for ‘mass killing’
The hunt is on for ousted Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukraine’s new government issued an arrest warrant Monday for Yanukovych, accusing him of “mass killing” in the crackdown on protesters in Kiev by heavily armed security forces and snipers that left 82 dead last week.
But amid the chaos, Russian officials — Yanukovych’s most strident supporters — called the replacement government an “armed mutiny.”
Yanukovych, 63, who fled Kiev on Friday, but was blocked from leaving the country, remains on the lam.
He was likely holed up on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a proRussian area of the country and home to a Russian naval base.
Ukraine’s acting top police official, Arsen Avakhov, said on his Facebook page that Yanukovych and several honchos from his nowdefunct administration were wanted for the “mass killing of civilians.”
After authorities stopped Yanukovych from leaving the country, he dismissed his official security detail and drove away in a car, turning off all forms of communication.
“Yanukovych has disappeared,” Avakhov said.
ProWest activist Valeri Kazachenko said Yanukovych must be put on trial at the scene of the crime in Kiev’s Independence Square.
“He must answer for all the crimes he has committed against Ukraine and its people,” he said. “Yanukovych must be tried by the court of the people right here in the square.”
The bloodshed at the demonstrations in the square helped alter Ukraine’s political landscape, prompting the police, military and parliament to turn on the democratically elected Yanukovych.
The monthslong street protests targeted Yanukovych for allying with Russia rather than the European Union, for corruption and cronyism, and for the lack of jobs.
Ukraine, a country of 46 million people, is sharply divided between western regions that favor the European Union and the east and south, which side with Russia, the country’s neighbor, which has long dominated it.
The upheaval sparked fears that Ukraine would split apart.
In Crimea and some eastern cities, supporters of the new government in Kiev and those loyal to Moscow clashed in street fights Monday.
“Extremists have seized power in Kiev and we must defend Crimea. Russia must help us with that,” said Anataly Mareta, a Cossack militia leader in Sevastopol.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called the ouster of Yanukovych an “armed mutiny.”