You're reading: Surveillance camera catches Pshonka, Klymenko fleeing Ukraine

They ran as they ruled – with no grace or sense of propriety.

On Feb. 22, when most of Ukraine was mourning dozens of EuroMaidan protesters killed allegedly on the orders of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and Minister of Revenues and Duties of Ukraine Oleksandr Klymenko were busy making a hasty exit out of Ukraine.

Their scandalous escape was filmed by security surveillance cameras at the Donetsk airport.

Neither have been seen publicly in Ukraine
since, with Pshonka fleeing mass murder charges for allegedly conspiring with
Yanukovych to kill demonstrators, and Klymenko also facing criminal
investigations and sanctions from the West.

Pshonka and Klymenko are seen in the video
as having gotten past passport control officers when Pshonka’s mobile phone rings.

It appears that someone called to warn him of
his possible arrest. Realizing the sudden danger, Pshonka and Klymenko – along with
their bodyguards — break through the terminal, smashing everything blocking
their path.

While Klymenko started fighting with the
border guards,  Pshonka desperately
struggles towards the terminal exit, almost losing his coat in the process.

Despite firing warning shots in the air,
the border guards failed to stop the duo.

Pshonka and Klymenko, in addition to other
allegations, face charges of resisting border guards and could be sentenced to up
to six years in prison if convicted.

Their whereabouts are currently unknown,
but are suspected of hiding out in the Russian Federation with Yanukovych and a
coterie of other former administration officials on the lam from criminal
charges under the interim government in Kyiv.

An hour later after Pshonka’s and
Klymenko’s escape, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was also seen
at the Donetsk airport. He intended to leave the country on the same plane that
Pshonka wanted to take.

Yuriy Lysyuk, the Donetsk division head of
Ukraine’s border guard, who witnessed Pshonka’s scuffle with and escape from border
guards, said that two flights were scheduled to Moscow on Feb. 22.

“Border guards were offered a bribe to let
the plane off without the necessary registration of all the necessary documents,”
Lysyuk said.

However, after the border guards got information
that armed men were on board, they blocked the airplane to prevent its
departures.

When Security Services of Ukraine agent got
on the plane, he was surprised to find Viktor Yanukovych, replaced as president
on Feb. 22

“It was strange to see the president on
board,” Lysyuk says. Yanukovych explained then that he had planned to go to
Donetsk and was not going to fly somewhere else. “He got off the plane, took
the car and left,” Lysyuk added.

Yanukovych and Pshonka are wanted on
suspicion of mass murder and other charges. However, the list of former
officials on the Interpol wanted list is likely to grow, according to the former head of the National Central Bureau of Interpol in Ukraine, Kyrylo Kulykov.

Watch the video here.

Kyiv
Post staff writer NataliyaTrach can be reached at
[email protected]

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