Yanukovych blames West for Ukraine’s woes
Ousted president says he opposes military action
“Stop this lawlessness with support from the West.”
VIKTOR YANUKOVYCH
Ousted president Viktor Yanukovych resurfaced Friday to deny he had asked Russia to intervene militarily in Ukraine and “categorically opposed any military actions.”
But the main thrust of his address — in front of yellow and blue Ukrainian flags in southern Russia — was to accuse western countries repeatedly of collaborating with “terrorists” to overthrow his government and creating “chaos and catastrophe” in his country. The U.S., in particular, came under fire for supporting activists in Kyiv’s Independence Square.
“Stop this lawlessness with support from the West,” Yanukovych said in an often surreal 70-minute news conference in Rostov-on-Don, about 60 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. It was there he had sought “temporary shelter” after fleeing Ukraine last week, claiming he had been shot and feared for his life and that of his family. He would return home, he said, as soon as he had guarantees for their safety.
A disconnect with reality was most apparent when, against evidence in most parts of the country, Yanukovych insisted a majority of his countrymen still supported him and would not accept the new regime, or “this circus in the parliament,” which grabbed power after a bloody revolt.
Early presidential elections called for May 25 were “illegal and I will not participate,” Yanukovych said. Sticking with what he had proposed before being chased from office, he said fresh elections should take place in December.
As Yanukovych spoke, armed men in combat dress who support Crimean ties with Russia continued to control airports near Sevastopol and Simferopol that they had seized early Thursday. Yanukovych defended such behaviour as “an understandable reaction to the barbarity and chaos in Kyiv.”
Yanukovych had not yet met with his protector, Russian President Vladimir Putin, but they had spoken by phone since he arrived in Russia last Saturday.
“We agreed to meet as soon as possible, but I am not sure when that might happen,” Yanukovych said.
The new government, which is strongly pro-western, “had lost a good partner in Russia,” he said.
But in a sign of the friction that exists between them, Yanukovych acknowledged his disappointment that Putin had not spoken publicly about what had transpired in Ukraine.
He also criticized his own role in his downfall, tearfully apologizing for not having been able to maintain peace in the country. “I am more than ashamed,” he said. “I apologize to the veterans and Ukrainian people that I did not have enough strength to keep stability and allowed lawlessness in the country.”
Crimeans watched spellbound as Yanukovych made his first public remarks since last Saturday. The news conference was shown live on television in Ukraine and Russia. Much of what he had to say will be mocked in Kyiv and western Ukraine, which favour stronger ties with the West. But even in Crimea, where the ethnic Russian majority looks to Moscow for help, Yanukovych is now hated for having lost the country to western interests.
Asked about charges of mass murder in the deaths of more than 80 people in the Kyiv violence, he angrily replied: “I never gave orders for the police to shoot. They were unarmed until the last mo- ment and only then (took up arms) because they were at risk of death.”
Sidestepping a question about possibly facing a war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, he said an independent inquiry must be held in Ukraine.
“The truth will be found and told,” he said. “Right now there is a horrible theatrical drama going on with the participation of people with weapons. We want this to be over peacefully.” But in one of many references to a western role in his removal from office, he said, “This was not written in Ukraine.”
Yanukovych apparently had time to watch TV reports of the lavish lifestyle he enjoyed at his mansion outside of Kyiv, which was “liberated” by activists hours after he left the capital under cover of darkness.
The home has belonged to his family since 1999 and had been given to him by another Ukrainian president, he said.
“I have nothing anywhere,” he said. “I have nothing overseas. I am a public figure and everything I have has been declared.”
There were no questions about the evidence being assembled from documents at his mansion that seem to indicate he had spent staggering amounts of money.