Having left Kiev, but still remaining the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych refused to speak at the congress of deputies of all levels from the south-eastern regions in Kharkov on February 22, 2014, since an attempt was to be made on his life there.
Yanukovych’s former security guard Sergei Bernatsky reported this during interrogation at the court hearing in the case of Yanukovych’s treason, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Pavlenko (ex-chief of Yanukovych’s security service headquarters) said that there were big problems and went with a report to Kobzar (chief of the security service). They talked. Then Kobzar talked with Dobkin, and together they went into the room where the president was. After that, I talked with Pavlenko, he told me in more detail that by the time he arrived at the Sports Palace at 9 o’clock, there were already about 200 people in the hall who entered without the appropriate permission. No one could say specifically who these people were.
He said that he had information that among these people there was a group whose task was to eliminate the president during the congress. He also told me that a second similar group with the task of eliminating the president was on the street. If the main one did not work, then the second, backup, was supposed to complete this task.
How? Using firearms, Molotov cocktails, the so-called. Molotov cocktail. Because the most vulnerable place is when getting into a car. We had such information at that time,” the guard said.