Chronicle of the fleeing Yanukovych: Mysterious details
Former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, during a video interrogation in the Svyatoshinsky District Court, answered questions in monosyllables about the events in Kyiv on February 18-20, claiming that he did not remember much. But Yanukovych, as it turned out, remembers the details of his escape from Ukraine in detail. It was clear that he wanted to talk about it
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The ex-president said that on February 21, the then head of the Kharkov region administration, Mikhail Dobkin, called him and invited him to take part in the congress of deputies of the south-eastern regions of Ukraine.
“I said maybe I’ll come. On that day, when I was driving to the residence, my motorcade was fired upon from automatic weapons... The head of my security, Kobzar, reported that the weather was expected to worsen on February 22. I decided to fly out,” Yanukovych said.
According to him, in the morning Dobkin called him again and said that it was dangerous to come to the congress, “because in the morning the control system was broken, and unknown people entered the building in large numbers, the delegates fled.”
“Then I received information that at night a motorcade that was traveling to Kharkov was attacked. Guards were injured. I decided to invite media representatives to Kharkov,” Yanukovych said.
However, the press conference did not take place, and the president rushed to Donetsk.
“When I was flying to Donetsk, the military dispatcher called and gave the order to return to Kharkov. For what purpose is unknown. He said that such an order was given to him by the head of the Verkhovna Rada, Alexander Turchynov. The pilot replied that the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the President of Ukraine, was on board. Besides, he has no fuel to return to Kharkov. He began to threaten that he would raise the fighters and they would force them to land on the ground,” Yanukovych said.
According to him, he was met by armed people in Donetsk.
“As they said, they have orders to detain me. I smiled and said, “You understand what you are doing. You have no right to do this." They agreed with this,” Yanukovych said, demanding that the assassination attempt on the president be investigated.
Since the airport in Donetsk was blocked, Yanukovych decided to go to Crimea by car. On the way, he stopped at the residence of Rinat Akhmetov and met his sons there.
“My youngest son, a people’s deputy, may the kingdom of heaven be his, said that there was a coup in parliament. The deputies are under pressure from the Maidan, some were beaten, others are scared and vote for everything,” Yanukovych began to say, but the judge and the prosecutor interrupted him.
“On February 22 we went to Crimea. In the Melitopol area, we almost walked into an ambush, which was 5 km away from us. The advance group that accompanied me saw people without identification marks, armed with automatic weapons. At the checkpoint they had two heavy machine guns. The commander of the advance group reported this to me,” says Yanukovych.
The president's security contacted the traffic police and they reported that the people in the ambush were negotiating an order to shoot everyone in the president's motorcade.
“They were even chasing us, but we went faster and they fell behind. And a group from Donetsk came after us. They started to surround us. My security asked me what to do, and I said that I had to go to Crimea,” Yanukovych said.
The ex-president never answered the question of how he ended up in Russia, although he was asked about it three times.
According to prosecutor Donskoy, Yanukovych arrived in Yeysk on February 23 at 3:51, where he met with the commander of the Southern Federal District troops, Alexander Galkin, from where he then returned to Crimea by plane.
Yanukovych responded by saying that he had not met Galkin and that this was the first time he had heard such a name.
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