Arrest warrant against Ukraine’s fugitive president for mass murder
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Ukraine’s new authorities issued an arrest warrant yesterday for mass murder against ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, who is on the run after being toppled by bloody street protests in which police snipers killed opposition demonstrators.
Russia, Yanukovych’s main backer, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian authorities, declaring that Russian citizens’ lives were under threat there, and contacted NATO to express concern.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton arrived in Kiev to discuss measures to shore up the ailing economy, which the finance ministry said needs urgent financial assistance to avoid default.
The EU has contacted the United States, Japan, China, Canada and Turkey to coordinate aid for Ukraine, a European Commission official said. France’s foreign minister said an international donors’ conference was being discussed.
Yanukovych, 63, who fled Kiev by helicopter on Friday, was still at large after heading first to his power base in the east, where he was prevented from flying out of the country, and then diverting south to Crimea, acting interior minister Arsen Avakov said.
“An official case for the mass murder of peaceful citizens has been opened,” Avakov wrote on his Facebook profile. “Yanukovych and other people responsible for this have been declared wanted,” he added.
Yanukovych had left a private residence in Balaclava, in pro-Russian Crimea, for an unknown destination by car with one of his aides and security guards, Avakov said.
It was an ignominious political end for Yanukovych who has been publicly deserted by some of his closest and had to witness the release from prison of his arch-rival Yulia Tymoshenko.
Russia recalled its ambassador for consultations on Sunday, accusing the opposition of having torn up a transition agreement.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow had grave doubts about the legitimacy of those in power in Ukraine.
“We do not understand what is going on there. There is a real threat to our interests and to the lives of our citizens,” Medvedev was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Russia cited a duty to protect the lives of its citizens in 2008 as one justification for military intervention in Georgia, another former Soviet republic.
On Independence Square in central Kiev, cradle of the uprising, barricades remained in place, with diehards vowing to stay until May elections.
A day after Yanukovych fled, parliament named its new speaker, Oleksander Turchinov, as interim head of state. An ally of Tymoshenko, he aims to swear in a government by today to run things until a presidential election on May 25.
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