You're reading: Yanukovych wants to come back home, he tells Russian TV

Ousted President Viktor Yanukovych hopes to come back to Ukraine at the first opportunity. His main goal as he sees it is to end the war in Ukraine and stop the humiliation of Donbas citizens, Yanukovych said in an interview to Russia's First channel broadcast late on Feb. 23.

He said the current government should
stop calling for mobilization and arming of Ukraine, as some Western
countries suggest, and think how to bring people back to normal life
on their land.

Continuous fighting between Ukrainian
army and Kremlin-backed fighters in eastern Ukraine has killed
more than 7,000 people since mid-April.

But people in
Donbas didn’t even think about taking up arms,” Yanukovych said
in his latest interview. He says the government started waging war
against its own people. “It was nonsense,” Yanukovych said.

Yanukovych’s latest
round of statements echoes the Russian propaganda about the origin of
war in Ukraine, spouted though Kremlin-controlled media and at all
international arenas. Russian President Vladimir Putin sheltered
Yanukovych a year ago, when the disgraced former president ran away
from Ukraine. Initially, he gave frequent press conferences and
interviews, but they have become increasingly few and far apart.

Speaking from his exile in Russia,
Yanukovych recalled he had two options last year: either to use all
the legitimate powers to restore the constitutional order in Ukraine,
or to leave the country. Yanukovych stressed he opposed ruling by
force and had to flee Ukraine when there were “evident signs”
that someone wanted to kill the president.

Yanukovych is certain
that
the opposition leaders Kyiv,
which he referred to as “coup leaders,” wanted to follow the
Libyan scenario in their assassination attempt at the
p
resident.

Yanukovych saiad he had “sleepless
nights” in the past year, worrying about the hardships of the
Ukrainian nation. He says that Ukraine has paid a high price for a
year of “mistakes, crime and grieving.”

And we need to
talk about it round the clock,” Yanukovych explained, adding that
he wanted to get back to Ukraine and lead the protest movement, and
then to defend “those people who are in this situation (of war).”


“God has left me alive, so it
looks like I’m needed for something,“ Yanukovych said. “As soon
as there is a possibility for me to return, I will return and will do
everything I can to make life in Ukraine better.”

However, Yanukovych is certain that
when he shows up in Kyiv, his enemies – as he called the new
government in Kyiv – would do everything to kill him.

Yanukovych is wanted in Ukraine for a
number of crimes, including murder and embezzlement.

Last month, Interpol put him on
international wanted list. In its statement, the organization said
that it’s putting out the “Red Notice, or international wanted
persons alert, for the arrest of Victor Yanukovych on charges
including abuse of power and murder.”

The Russian authorities have repeatedly said that they would not extradite Ukraine’s former president, however.