MOSCOW, February 27 (RAPSI) – Ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich on Thursday released a statement to RIA Novosti decrying the new parliament and their decisions as illegitimate.
Yanukovich added that he considers the agreement signed with the opposition void, and that he considers himself to be the lawful head of the Ukraine. The document signed on February 21 by Yanukovich and the opposition leaders proposed the return to the 2004 constitution with redestributing power towards parliamentary republic form of government, and early presidential elections after the constitutional reform.
In his statement, Yanukovich added that the people of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea do not support the “anarchy,” when the ministers are elected by a mob from the streets. RIA Novosti reported Thursday citing an unnamed source in the Russian government that Yanukovich’s plea for protection was "granted on the territory of Russia."
President Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted by Ukraine’s Supreme Rada (parliament), was placed on a wanted list Tuesday.
Unrest in Kiev erupted this month anew as thousands of people marched on the parliament building, where a standoff was taking place over proposed constitutional reforms that the opposition said could provide a way out of the political crisis that is paralyzing the country. The violence that ensued resulted in numerous deaths and hundreds of injuries.
Fighting between radical anti-government protesters and police has claimed 82 lives since the violence escalated on February 18, according to the Ukrainian Health Ministry.
Yanukovich, who fled the capital, had earlier called the move a coup and compared it to the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s.