You're reading: Yanukovych financing protests in southeastern Ukraine

Pro-Russian activists' massive protests in southern and eastern Ukraine are being financed by Viktor Yanukovych now residing in Russia, Serhiy Pashynsky, Ukraine's interim presidential chief of staff, has said.

“We have convincing evidence suggesting that the current mass actions in southeastern Ukraine are being financed by Yanukovych and his people. We also have frozen dozens of bank accounts and seized colossal resources. All of these massive rallies are financed,” Pashynsky said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Asked whether businessman Rinat Akhmetov and leader of the Party of Regions faction Oleksandr Yefremov could participate in financing the mass actions, Pashynsky said, “concerning Yefremov and Akhmetov, we have no direct evidence indicating that they are involved.”