You're reading: Witness Senchenko: Yanukovych’s appeal to Putin on March 1, 2014 made ‘on Kremlin orders’

The appeal of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to Russian President Vladimir Putin dated March 1, 2014 with the request to use the Russian Armed Forces on the territory of Ukraine appeared “on the order of the Kremlin” to legitimize the aggression in Crimea, leader of the Force of Law NGO, ex-MP of the Batkivschyna Party Andriy Senchenko has said.

“It is quite obvious to me that this statement appeared on the order of the Kremlin, while what is said in this statement, in fact, contradicts the agreement signed by Yanukovych [on Feb.21, 2014 with the opposition with the participation of international mediators],” Senchenko said during the interrogation as a witness for the prosecution in the case on Viktor Yanukovych’s treason in the Obolonsky district court of Kyiv.

He also expressed confidence that Yanukovych was not going to observe the agreement with the opposition signed on Feb. 21, 2014. “On Feb.22, laws were passed in the Verkhovna Rada, including the law on the restoration of certain provisions of the 2004 Constitution, and he literally entered the president’s administration within an hour. However, by the evening on Feb. 22, Viktor Yanukovych was no longer there: he left the presidential administration, in fact, fled, and failed to comply with the clause of the agreement and did not sign this law,” the ex-lawmaker said.

The witness pointed out that as of Feb. 22, 2014, many then ministers, deputy ministers and 77 of the 186 deputies of the Party of Regions faction left Ukraine. “In my opinion, they thus demonstrated that the blame for what is happening lies with Yanukovych, and I think that the flight of his supporters caused such a reaction and the flight from the country. In my opinion, there are no grounds to say that there was some direct threat to his life,” he said.