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Ukraine’s Acting Government Issues Warrant for Yanukovych’s Arrest
Acting Officials in Ukraine Accuse Ex-President of Mass Murder
(35 minutes later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s acting interior minister issued a warrant on Monday for the arrest of former President Viktor F. Yanukovych, accusing him of mass killing of civilian protesters in demonstrations last week.
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s acting interior minister said on Monday that authorities were in pursuit of the ousted president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, who was believed to be in Crimea in the south of the country, and that he would be arrested on charges of mass murder in the killings of dozens of antigovernment protesters last week.
Arsen Avakov, the acting official, made the announcement on his official Facebook page Monday. He also said that Mr. Yanukovych had arrived in Crimea on Sunday and had fled to an unknown location without his security detail, according to The Associated Press.
The minister, Arsen Avakov, who was appointed by Parliament on Saturday, wrote on his Facebook page that he was personally involved in the manhunt and had traveled to the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Sunday night hoping to intercept Mr. Yanukovych at the airport there, but that the deposed president had not turned up as expected.
The temporary government has moved swiftly since Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster and flight on Saturday, trying to head off the potential for infighting among several opposition groups or even a broader conflict.
He said Mr. Yanukovych had then fled in an unknown direction, traveling by car, and with a diminished security detail.
Since Saturday, a series of bureaucratic steps — a session of Parliament and the continued running of government institutions — seemed to pull the country back from the brink. As Parliament acted, even Mr. Yanukovych’s party denounced him for the deadly crackdown on protesters. And the military vowed to support the new government rather than rallying to the ousted president’s side.
The pursuit of Mr. Yanukovych, a man now widely despised even by many of his former supporters, gripped the nation on Monday, as the Parliament continued its efforts to rebuild the government, with hopes of appointing an acting prime minister and having the rest of a provisional government in place on Tuesday.
In its emergency session on Sunday, the Parliament granted expanded powers to its new speaker, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, who now has the authority to carry out the duties of the president of Ukraine as well.
With former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, freed from prison on Saturday, saying she did not want to be considered for the post, speculation on the premiership focused on her ally, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, who has been a leader of the anti-Yanukovych street protests since they began in late November.
During his first formal address to the nation, in a recorded video that was broadcast on Sunday evening, Mr. Turchynov sought to soothe any remaining fear of the police and security services after clashes in Kiev last week left 82 people dead — the worst violence in Ukraine since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Western officials on Monday continued to praise the developments in Ukraine, saying that Parliament had successfully filled a power vacuum, and that democratic institutions had functioned successfully. Russia, however, stepped up its criticism after recalling its ambassador from Kiev on Sunday.
“The law enforcement structures are no longer threatening the life, health and security of the citizens of Ukraine,” he said, wearing a dark blazer and black turtleneck and standing next to a Ukrainian flag outside the Parliament building.
“Today, I see no legitimate Ukrainian partners for dialogue,” the Russian prime minister, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said in Sochi, a day after the close of the Winter Olympics, according to the Interfax news service. “If people crossing Kiev in black masks with Kalashnikov rifles are considered a government, it will be difficult for us to work with such a government.”
Mr. Turchynov, a veteran lawmaker who served previously as acting prime minister and as head of the security service, noted that Parliament had appointed an acting interior minister, who is in charge of the police, and had designated lawmakers to oversee the general prosecutor’s office, the Defense Ministry and the security service.
In fact, the security situation in the Ukrainian capital seemed to improve on Monday, with regular law enforcement bodies and some antigovernment fighters sharing responsibility for guarding government buildings and directing traffic. A sense of workaday calm seemed to return to the city, even as barricades still surrounded the main protest sites.
On Monday, in the most extensive Russian reaction since Mr. Yanukovych fled, Russia’s prime minister, Dmitri A. Medvedev, declared that instability in Ukraine was “a real threat to our interests and to our citizens’ lives and health.”
As Mr. Yanukovych’s public persona morphed from feared strongman to detested fugitive, any last vestiges of support for him seemed to vanish even in the pro-Russia eastern and southern parts of the country, which had historically provided his base of political support.
“Strictly speaking, today there is no one to talk to there,” Mr. Medvedev said in remarks reported by the Interfax news agency. “The legitimacy of a whole host of government bodies is raising huge doubts.”
Mr. Yanukovych’s own Party of Regions, which had supported him until lawmakers began defecting over last week’s mass killings in Kiev, issued a statement on Sunday saying the country had been deceived, robbed and betrayed. “All responsibility for this lies with Yanukovych,” the party wrote. “We condemn the flight and cowardice of Yanukovych. We condemn the betrayal.”
The whereabouts of Mr. Yanukovych, who insisted in a statement on Saturday that he was still president, remained unknown. In several cities in eastern Ukraine, including Donetsk, which is Mr. Yanukovych’s hometown, and Kharkiv, pro-Russian demonstrators took to the streets to denounce the developments in Kiev.
Mr. Yanukovych and his family were known to have accumulated vast wealth during his time in office, and he was believed to have access to at least one yacht that might ferry him out of Ukraine.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, has insisted that Ukrainian opposition leaders had “seized power” illegally, and the Kremlin recalled its ambassador to Kiev, citing chaos. Mr. Lavrov spoke by telephone with Secretary of State John Kerry, continuing a high-level dialogue on Ukraine, though Mr. Kerry voiced support for the Parliament’s actions.
On Facebook, Mr. Avako said that after abandoning his residence near the capital, Mr. Yanukovych had flown by helicopter to Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, where he prepared a video statement on Saturday declaring that he remained president. Then he went to the airport in Donetsk, where he and several companions sought to flee the country on Falcon airplanes.
But in a broader sense, there was still an easing of fears that a deepening schism could fracture Ukraine between the Russian-leaning east and south and the pro-European West.
Border police at the airport prevented the planes from flying, Mr. Avakov said, and Mr. Yanukovych then departed in a motorcade for the south. After learning that Parliament had voted to strip him of power, Mr. Yanukovych began avoiding government residences, including a presidential country house in Crimea where he was expected to seek shelter.
First, Mr. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions even turned against him, issuing a strongly worded statement that said he was responsible for the deaths last week and accusing him of betraying the country.
In addition to the murder charges, there have been calls for prosecution of Mr. Yanukovych on corruption charges after the discovery of astonishing trappings of wealth at his abandoned presidential residence in a national park outside of Kiev. Throughout the weekend, curious and angry members of the public streamed to the compound to gawk at the collections of expensive modern and antique cars, the private zoo and other gauche accouterments.
“The country finds itself deceived and robbed, but even this is nothing in comparison with the grief that dozens of Ukrainian families, who have lost their relatives, are feeling,” the party wrote in a statement on its website. “Ukraine has been betrayed. Viktor Yanukovych and his team are responsible for this.”
As journalists scoured the compound, sorting through a trove of documents that had been partly burned or dumped in a river, local news media began reporting allegations of embezzlement and corruption, and new details about Mr. Yanukovych’s personal life emerged.
Further assurance that stability had been re-established came from the military. A statement posted Saturday on the Defense Ministry website after Mr. Yanukovych’s departure, and attributed to the ministry and the military, reaffirmed a commitment to the Constitution and expressed sorrow over the deaths in Kiev.
The Kyiv Post, a newspaper here, said that it had found evidence that Mr. Yanukovych, 63, was living at the residence with a 39-year-old girlfriend and her 12-year-old daughter from a prior relationship. Mr. Yanukovych has been married for 42 years, but his wife, Lyudmila, has long lived in Donetsk and typically has not performed the duties of first lady.
“Please be assured that the armed forces of Ukraine cannot and will not be involved in any political conflict,” the statement said.
It was not clear whether the girlfriend, identified as Lyubov Plezhay, was traveling with Mr. Yanukovych. Mr. Avakov said that the ousted president was accompanied by Andriy Klyuyev, a close political ally whom he had recently named as chief of the presidential administration.
In a separate statement, the military chief of staff, Yuriy Ilyin, just recently appointed by Mr. Yanukovych, said, “As an officer I see no other way than to serve the Ukrainian people honestly and assure that I have not and won’t give any criminal orders.”
Mr. Turchynov said in his address to the nation that he expected Parliament to name an acting prime minister and fill out a unity government by Tuesday.
Former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, who was jailed by Mr. Yanukovych after losing the 2010 presidential election and was freed on Saturday, issued a statement saying she did not want to be considered for the premier’s post. Still, it left open the possibility that she will run for president.
The Parliament began its emergency Sunday session by adopting a law restoring state ownership of Mr. Yanukovych’s opulent presidential palace, which he had privatized. After the residence, which is in a national park, was abandoned and then opened to the public, visitors reacted with fury and dismay at the astonishing display of wealth and excess, including separate collections of modern and antique cars and a private zoo.
The vote to reclaim the palace was 323 to 0, with at least 106 lawmakers absent, most of them from the Party of Regions. One of the party’s leaders, Volodymyr Rybak, who was ousted from the speaker’s post in a similarly lopsided vote on Saturday, issued a statement on Sunday saying he intended to return to the Parliament. Other officials seemed to have fled for good.
Mr. Avakov, who was installed by Parliament on Saturday as acting interior minister, told reporters on Sunday that an investigation had been opened into 30 or more officials who may have been responsible for the violence last week in Kiev.
He also said border guards on Saturday had prevented the departure of a plane in eastern Ukraine with Mr. Yanukovych aboard, making it most likely that he was still in the country.
The center of Kiev is scorched and scarred. The streets are blackened from fires set during clashes with the police. On Sunday, people placed flowers and candles at makeshift shrines memorializing the dead. Outside the Cabinet of Ministers building, parents had their small children pose for photographs with victorious antigovernment fighters who are still armed with clubs and wearing helmets, but now stand guard over the government headquarters. Many had flowers attached to their metal shields.
To be sure, Kiev has quite a long way to go before it will feel normal again. Instead of trained police, irregular bands of antigovernment fighters now control and provide security at main government buildings, including the presidential residence, and enormous barriers of tires, scrap wood and other debris still close off the main protest zone.
In a series of votes on Sunday, the Parliament dismissed the foreign minister, Leonid Kozhara; the education minister, Dmytro Tabachnyk; and the health minister, Raisa Bohatyriova.
Several lawmakers said recreating the government was particularly urgent given Ukraine’s perilous economic situation. Russia had come to Mr. Yanukovych’s rescue in December with a $15 billion bailout and an offer of cheaper prices on natural gas.
A $2 billion installment of that aid was canceled as part of a deal reached on Friday between Mr. Yanukovych and opposition leaders, and while Western officials have said they hope to offer assistance, it was unclear how quickly that help might arrive.
Among the reasons Mr. Yanukovych turned away from signing political and trade accords with Europe in November was his unwillingness to carry out austerity measures and other reforms that the International Monetary Fund had demanded in exchange for a large assistance package.
On Sunday, the fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, said that there was concern about the political instability in Ukraine and that the fund could provide assistance only in response to a formal request. But she added that an economic program to help Ukraine had to be “owned by the authorities, by the people, because at the end of the day it will be the future of the Ukrainian economy.”
For the moment, though, Mr. Turchynov, the interim leader, said the priority was to restore a sense of normalcy and unity.
“Our first task today is to stop confrontation, renew governance, management and legal order in the country,” he said, adding, “We have to rebuke any displays of separatism and threats to the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
