Ukraine’s Ex-President Viktor Yanukovych said he did not give orders to law enforcers to use firearms against EuroMaidan protetesters in January-February of 2014 as he was testifying in Kyiv Svyatoshyn Court via a video conference on Nov. 28.
Yanukovych, who has fled to Russia, running away from the EuroMaidan Revolution in late February of 2014, was speaking from a courtroom in Rostov in southern Russia.
He was called as a witness in the case of the former riot police officers, who are accused of shooting the EuroMaidan protesters. Some 100 protesters were killed in January-February of 2014.
According to the ex-president, he “did everything to prevent the bloodshed” and wanted to find a compromise with the opposition leaders and the protesters on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in late 2013 and early 2014.
“The radicals and those who manipulated them are the ones to blame. They provoked the bloodshed. If not for them, we would not have this situation in Crimea and Donbas,” Yanukovych said during the 4-hour interrogation as a witness on Nov. 28 in the investigation into the murder of more than 100 EuroMaidan activists in 2014.
Yanukovych said he couldn’t remember some of the things that took place during the EuroMaidan Revolution. He could not explain how he ended up in Crimea in late February, where he made a stop before going to Russia.
Many in Ukraine are not pleased with the fact that Yanukovych is appearing as a witness and is not facing trial himself.
During the questioning, Yanukovych said that Serhiy Liovochkin, his chief of staff at the time, could have been involved in the dispersal of a student protest on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in the early hours of November 30, 2013, which became a turning point in the revolution, bringing thousands to the streets.
“Yes, he could have been involved in it. It’s possible. But I personally did not have any evidence of that,” Yanukovych said. “And the investigators failed to find it.”
Yanukovych also claimed that there were “few students on Maidan Nezalezhnosti” on the night of Nov. 29. Instead, he said, there were radicals who provoked the riot police to attack.
“In my opinion, (the police) went beyond their authority (when dispersed the activists),” Yanukovych said.
During the cross-examination, the prosecutors asked Yanukovych what kind of relationship he had with Viktor Medvedchuk, Ukraine’s pro-Russian oligarch and a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the prosecution, Yanukovych called Medvedchuk at least 54 times from December 2013 to February 2014.
However, Yanukovych said he had no time for the phone calls and had “limited relationship” with Medvedchuk.
When asked what he was doing on Feb. 20, 2014, the bloodiest day of the protests that saw at least 47 people killed in central Kyiv, Yanukovych said he had “an ordinary” day.
“I can’t recall it now, but there was nothing unusual in my daily routine that day,” he said during the questioning. “I was informed that the European Union delegation of three ministers of foreign affairs came or will come to Kyiv, and I started preparing for this meeting.”
Yanukovych is also certain that the shooting of the EuroMaidan protesters was a planned operation that aimed to topple the country’s authorities.
“This (violence) was a pseudo-operation to change the government,” Yanukovych said, adding that he could not comment on the fact who decided to provide weapons to law enforcement officers.
“As for the firearms that were (in possession) on Maidan, some of them (the protesters) had their own hunting rifles while other (weapons) were taken from Ukraine’s State Security Service building and Interior Ministry,” Yanukovych said.
In between the hearings, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko announced that Yanukovych has been formally charged with treason as well as “complicity with representatives of Russia’s authorities with the aim of changing Ukraine’s borders and violating Ukraine’s constitution.”
When asked how he ended up in Russia after he fled Ukraine in early hours of Feb. 23, Yanukovych couldn’t come up with an answer. He added, however, that his car was shot on their way to Crimea.
“On Feb. 22, we moved towards Crimea. Near (the city of) Melitopol we almost got ambushed. The group that accompanied me saw armed people with no sign of clothes,” he says, apparently meaning that the people had no insignia.
Before heading to Crimea, Yanukovych said that he drove to Donetsk, where he stayed in the house of Ukraine’s richest billionaire and his ally Rinat Akhmetov, but “he was not at home at that time.” According to Yanukovych, he met there with his two sons.
Yanukovych also said during the questioning that he had no criminal record. Yanukovych was convicted twice, but his record was cleared later. He was jailed for theft and assault in 1967, and for a participation in a drunken brawl in 1970.
