Ousted Ukraine president accused of mass murder of civilians
Russia cries ‘mutiny’ over change in Ukraine
(about 11 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — The new government of Ukraine issued an arrest warrant for ousted president Viktor Yanukovych on Monday to face charges of “mass murder of peaceful civilians,” a reference to the 88 Ukrainians killed by riot police and in street clashes over the last week.
KIEV, Ukraine — Russian leaders expressed their distrust and dislike of the new government of Ukraine on Monday, saying it came to power through “armed mutiny,” just hours after the authorities here announced a nationwide manhunt for ousted President Viktor Yanukovych on charges of “mass murder of peaceful civilians.”
Other unnamed former top officials were also being sought, as political foes of Yanukovych took swift, bold action in parliament to consolidate power and transform the government. The lawmakers are sacking ministers, freeing jailed protesters and scheduling elections, even as ordinary Ukrainians confessed they weren’t really sure who was running the country or where it was headed.
Russia questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s new interim leadership Monday, charging that it has used a peace deal brokered by Europe to make a power grab and suppress dissent in Russian-speaking regions through “terrorist methods.”
Interim Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who now oversees the national police, suggested Monday that Yanukovych was on the run, having moved over the last three days, by helicopter and vehicle convoy, from his palatial estate outside Kiev to Kharkiv to the Donetsk airport, where two chartered jets were stopped from leaving the country.
The tone was much harsher than any previous Russian response to the events of the past few days. "If you consider Kalashnikov-toting people in black masks who are roaming Kiev to be a government, then it will be hard for us to work with that government,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
The ousted president is now believed to be in Balaklava district of Crimea, Avakov reported on his Facebook page.
Ukrainian lawmakers, now dominated by foes of Yanukovych, were defiant. Asked about Russia’s displeasure, the parliamentarian Yuriy Derevyanko said: “They can take it or leave it. It’s not their business.”
“An official case for the mass murder of peaceful civilians has been opened,” Avakov wrote. “Yanukovych and other people responsible for this have been declared wanted.”
The search for Yanukovych was backed up by warrants authorizing the arrest of the ousted president and 50 members of his government for their roles in the deaths of 88 Ukrainians killed by riot police and in street clashes over the past week, said Arsen Avakov, the interim interior minister.
Journalists poring over documents left behind at Yanukovych’s mansion on the outskirts of Kiev found lists of expenses. “Cash: $12 million. Decoration of a dining hall and tea room: $2.3 million. Statue of a wild boar: $115,000,” according to the Associated Press.
Ukrainian officials said Yanukovych has used helicopters and ground vehicles to travel from his palatial estate outside Kiev to Kharkiv in the east, and then on to an airport in Donetsk, where two chartered jets were stopped from leaving the country by Border Guards. Some suspect that he may now have moved on to Ukraine’s Crimea region, which has a strong Russian-speaking majority.
The parliament on Monday was rushing ahead to form a caretaker government and appoint a new prime minister. The move is crucial to help Ukraine continue to meet its financial obligations, and, most important, borrow money.
The parliament was rushing ahead to form a caretaker government and appoint a new prime minister. The move is crucial to help Ukraine continue to meet its financial obligations, and, most important, borrow money.
The parliament has called for a presidential election on May 25, and it declared on Monday that candidates can announce themselves and begin their campaigns.
The parliament has called for a presidential election May 25, and it declared Monday that candidates can announce themselves and begin their campaigns Tuesday.
Protesters in Independence Square in central Kiev began to return home. The city was sunny and peaceful, with offices and business open again, and traffic normal.
Protesters in Independence Square in central Kiev began to return home. The city was sunny and peaceful, with offices and business open again, and traffic normal.
On Sunday, by decree, the nation’s parliament gave interim presidential authority to the speaker, Oleksandr Turchynov, a leader of the opposition.
Visitors to Yanukovych’s presidential Web site were greeted by an “error” message. Journalists poring over documents left behind at Yanukovych’s mansion on the outskirts of Kiev found lists of expenses, including one citing a $2.3 million bill for the decoration of a dining hall and tea room.
Turchynov quickly delivered some sobering news: The economy was in a shambles, and the government coffers empty. Ukraine’s pension fund, currency and banking system were facing “immense problems,” he said, according to the news agency RIA Novosti.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union's top diplomat, arrived in Kiev on Monday, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew held a phone conversation with Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a leader of the protests. But Medvedev, the Russian prime minister, heaped scorn on the West for what he called its “aberration of consciousness’’ for endorsing the toppling of Yanukovych’s democratically elected government.
Sunday’s actions brought the latest dramatic changes to a country convulsed by protests since Yanukovych reversed course on a trade agreement with the European Union three months ago and turned to Russia for economic aid.
At the same time, Russia’s foreign ministry spoke out in defense of members of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking minority, who live primarily in the eastern and southern parts of the country.
Even as demonstrators in Kiev celebrated Sunday, there were signs of trouble in parts of Ukraine that lean more toward Russia than Western Europe. In the southern Crimean region, men gathered to volunteer for militias to oppose the decrees announced in the capital.
A statement published on the ministry’s Web site warned of attempts to "nearly ban" the Russian language, to purge the government ranks of Yanukovych loyalists, to stifle the press and to permit neo-Nazi propaganda. It accused Ukraine's leaders of launching a "dictatorial, and sometimes even terrorist" campaign against Russian speakers.
There has been no word from Yanukovych since a short prerecorded interview aired Saturday morning on Ukrainian television, in which he blasted his removal as “illegal” and refused to resign. Border police said they stopped his plane in Donetsk on Saturday as he was trying to leave the country.
Similarly hostile rhetoric was voiced by Mikhail Dobkin, governor of the eastern region around Kharkiv, where many Ukrainians speak Russian as their first language. Dobkin denounced the "fascism" of the new authorities gathered in Kiev.
Legislators said Sunday that they urgently needed to form an interim unity government, leading up to the May 25 elections. But in their rush, they got ahead of themselves.
At the same time, Dobkin announced that he would run for president in the May elections – a sign that, however dismayed, he is prepared to play by the new rules and enter the electoral fray.
The lawmakers put forth the name of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko as a possible candidate for the premiership. But she quickly said she was not interested in the job and had not been consulted.
The Ukrainian parliament passed a law Monday downgrading Russian as an official second language, and there were calls for the ouster of Yanukovych’s allies, but Russia did not provide evidence to support its other charges.
Even Yanukovych’s allies began to turn against their former boss on Sunday, blaming him for the crisis.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry said Russia has nothing to worry about. Threats to Russian citizens "are ungrounded because the situation is stable and under control," the ministry's press secretary, Yevhen Perebiynis, told the Interfax news agency.
Oleksandr Yefremov, a leader of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, said he “strongly condemns the criminal orders that led to human victims, an empty state treasury, huge debts and the shame before the eyes of the Ukrainian people and the entire world.”
Russia has recalled its ambassador to Ukraine. On Monday, its sanitary service – notorious for discovering health problems with imports from countries Russia is having a spat with – announced that it was prepared to ban foodstuffs from Ukraine on the grounds that the turmoil here could have led to lapsed standards.
Vitali Klitschko, an opposition leader in parliament, said: “Millions of Ukrainians want to know where is the president. He’s disappeared. So we have a new one.”
The Russian denunciations have stoked fears that Moscow is encouraging a break-up of Ukraine, but such a drastic move seemed distant.
The White House found itself in the dark as well. “He’s gone,” national security adviser Susan E. Rice said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He took his stuff, his furniture with him. . . . Yesterday we knew where he was; today we’re not so sure.”
Tetiana Maliarenko, a professor at Donetsk State University of Management, in Yanukovych's industrial hometown in eastern Ukraine, called threats of a split, or a division into separate federated republics, an attempt to blackmail the new leaders in Ukraine and not a serious possibility.
Rice said that the Ukrainian economy was “very, very fragile” and that the U.S. government would work with the International Monetary Fund on assistance. European Union officials also have indicated that they are ready to offer financial aid to the new government.
"I am confident it will not split in the near future," she said. "There is public support for separatism, here and in the Crimea, and separatism was always on the table, but at the same time there is no project for a future independent state and no strong leaders to do this. There is a Russian-led movement but there is no one who can do it."
On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew spoke by phone with opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk and told him of the broad support expressed at the just-concluded Group of 20 meeting for an international assistance package for Ukraine centered on the IMF. But Lew stressed that the transitional government must first be fully established.
Ukraine’s interim government faces huge problems, even beyond the teetering economy.
“There are no police on the streets right now,” Klitschko told reporters. “The police will be reorganized, and we will try to do this as fast as possible.”
Another member of parliament warned his colleagues that they needed to work quickly to bring Ukraine’s security forces back to work, saying that some of the nation’s vital infrastructure, including nuclear power plants, was unguarded.
Opposition leaders urged thousands of demonstrators still in Kiev’s Independence Square to remain where they are to guarantee that the government changes wouldn’t be reversed.
They called upon the “self-defense” militias organized to defend the barricades at the square to remain on the streets to provide security. Groups of men in mismatched military uniforms, wielding baseball bats and homemade shields, were directing traffic at intersections and standing guard in front of government offices.
On Sunday, Independence Square was filled with Ukrainians who piled heaps of flowers at makeshift shrines beside photographs of protesters killed in the most recent clashes. In western Ukraine, which is fervently pro-Europe, large crowds assembled to mourn protesters slain in the past week.
Members of the opposition announced that protesters arrested during the demonstrations would be freed immediately, while they also sought to detain and prosecute the dismissed prosecutor general, Viktor Pshonka.
Avakov, the interim interior minister, promised that the government would open an inquiry into the use of lethal force by riot police and security forces.
Tymoshenko was released from a prison hospital Saturday, after serving 30 months in jail for what her supporters — and Western governments — say were politically motivated charges of embezzlement and abuse of power surrounding a deal to buy natural gas from Russia.
Many Ukrainians had assumed that she would be a candidate in the May elections. She lost to Yanukovych in the presidential race in 2010.
Among the unknowns Sunday was how Russia would react to the swift change in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that Moscow regards as a vital strategic interest. In December, Russia had signed a deal with Yanukovych promising a $15 billion support package for Ukraine. The move toward Russian aid fueled the protests in Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone Sunday about the developments in Ukraine, according to the Interfax news agency. The E.U. foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, was scheduled to arrive in Kiev on Monday. William Hague, the British foreign secretary, told the BBC on Sunday, “We don’t know, of course, what Russia’s next reaction will be.”
Russian officials have criticized the Ukrainian opposition for signing and then reneging on a compromise deal reached last week with Yanukovych that would have allowed him to stay in power for 10 more months and then pushed him aside.
“We do know that Russia, as well as the United States, has said a few days ago that they would get behind a deal that had been made. That deal has now been overtaken by events, and this is the importance of us continuing a dialogue with Russia,” Hague said.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Moscow would delay a planned purchase of $2 billion in Ukrainian eurobonds until Kiev formed a new government.
Ukraine’s parliament delighted many citizens by announcing Sunday that the government would confiscate the ousted president’s opulent estate on the outskirts of Kiev.
On Sunday, thousands of Ukrainians continued to tour the grounds, ogling at Yanukovych’s collection of classic cars, a restaurant in the shape of a full-size Spanish galleon, a golf course and zoo animals.
Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
