From the Kyiv Post archives: Parliament removes Yanukovych, even as he defiantly promises not to resign or leave Ukraine

Parliament on Feb. 22 voted
overwhelmingly to impeach embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Lawmakers applauded as the votes came in – 328 in all – to oust the president.
Following the vote, parliamentarian stood and sang the national anthem.

Rumors swirled earlier in the day that
he had resigned, but in a pre-recorded video interview, the defiant president
said: “I am not planning to leave the country. I am the legitimate president
and I am not going to resign.”

In the interview with a floor lamp to
his right side, illuminating the soft yellow curtains behind him, Yanukovych is
seen talking to someone to the side of the camera, gesturing often with a dark
suit and blue tie.

Yanukovych said that he arrived in
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, late at night and goes on to say:

“I’m trying to do everything so that
there won’t be bloodshed. Now of the people who are close to me. I am doing
everything to bring order the country. We made all steps to stabilize the
political situation in the country, but it happened the way it happened. I came
to Kharkiv late last night. I wanted to take part in the session of deputies.
But it turned out that I could not go because I have to be connected all
the time.

“I am trying to protect people who
are chased by bandits in the places where they live and work. (Verkhovna Rada
speaker Volodymyr) Rybak resigned because he was beaten up, his car was
attacked, he asked me to take him away and so I did. I have sent him for
treatment to Donetsk.”

Yanukovych also says his chief of staff,
Andriy Klyuyev, needs protection.

“What we witness now resembles Nazi
occupation. The Communist Party is under restriction as then. My car was shot
at, but I am not afraid for my life, I am afraid of my country. I will stay in
Ukraine and try to stop the criminals. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin told
me that he talked to (U.S. President Barack) Obama and we will negotiate.

“The threats come in all the
different ways. Yesterday for example, the Party of Regions deputies were going
out of the Rada building and people started throwing stones at them,” he
said.

He continued: “Deputies leave the
Party of Regions under pressure, some just cannot go through this, they are
afraid for their families. But, of course there are traitors. I don’t want to
talk about this. I don’t want to name their last names. Let it be on
them.

“The party has lived through such
times already in 2005 and 2004, when around 200,000 left the party but later
600,000 joined the party. I think that the situation will repeat now. Even if
600,000 leave the party now, there are 1.5 million people in the party. The
party is healthy. We see it as the repeat of history when in the 1930s Nazis
were coming to power, were banning parties.

“I see this as the same. They ban
Communists, Party of Regions, set houses on fire and offices, more than 200
offices of Party of Regions were burnt.

“All these decisions voted in
parliament are now illegal. They should hear this from me I will not signing
anything with the bandits that terrorize the whole country. All the
international mediators I worked with gave me guarantees of safety, now I will
see how they are going to fulfill their guarantees. Everything that is going on
today is mostly vandalism and banditry and state upheaval. This is my estimate
and I am pretty sure of that.

“What do I do next? I’ll do
everything to protect my country from separatism and will do everything to stop
the bloodshed. I don;t know how yet, but today I met many people and asked their
advice. Now I will go to the eastern and southern parts of the country where
people are less dangerous still. I want to find an answer what will we do next
in our country.”

His onetime patron, billionaire Rinat
Akhmetov, gave this statement: “My position remains unchanged: I am for a
strong, independent and united Ukraine. Today I place a special focus on the
word ‘united’ as this has never been more important.”

Yanukovych’s multimillion-dollar Mezhyhiriya mansion north of Kyiv, which is usually
off-limits to the public and hidden behind nine-meter-high walls, was
abandoned at 2 a.m. today, according to security guards, who opened the
gates to journalists and citizens.

Thousands made their way to the former
state-owned palatial estate that Yanukovych is believed to have privatized and
made his personal home through a string of murky deals after becoming president
in 2010. The estate has become a symbol of the level of corruption under the
Yanukovych regime.

A Kyiv Post journalist inside the
grounds reported that people there were calling the estate the “museum of
corruption” and hoping that it would eventually be returned to the state.
Crowds of press took photographs of the sprawling estate, while many families
from area who arrived early milled about in awe of what was behind the walls
outside their windows.

Prominent activist and Investigative
journalist Tetyana Chornovol coordinated with EuroMaidan Self-Defense members to
ensure people’s safety and that no vandalism would take place. They pleaded
with visitors, who were guided in small groups through the estate with a
Self-Defense member, to remain calm. No one with masks was being let into the
estate, which was found to house a helipad, zoo, several greenhouses, and an
extensive car collection, among other things.

Journalists also discovered documents
there left behind by the president that had been dumped in the Kyiv Sea and
partially burned in an attempt to destroy them. Some showed blacklists of
activists and journalists who had been critical of the president and his
government in their reports.

None of the nation’s acting ministers,
including Serhiy Arbuzov, appeared in public today or showed up at an emergency
session of parliament at which Oleksandr Turchynov was appointed as acting
prime minister, Arsen Avakov was given the post of interior minister and early
presidential elections were set for May.

In a quick spate of votes during the emergency
parliamentary session, lawmakers also voted to free imprisoned former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and voted to impeach the president before breaking
until 4 p.m.

Hours later, Tymoshenko was freed in
Kharkiv and taken to a plane that flew her to Kyiv. After speaking briefly to reporters
at Zhuliany airport, the former prime minister went to Hrushevskoho Street, the
site of deadly clashes between police and protesters in January, to pay her
respects. She was expected to speak on Maidan later in the night.

Rumors swirled in the morning that
Yanukovych had flown by private jet to Kharkiv, his stronghold in eastern
Ukraine, or perhaps abroad, someplace in the United Arab Emirates. None of
these could be confirmed. However, he has not been seen in public and members
of parliament said they don’t know his whereabouts.

Hanna Herman, a Yanukovych advisor and
member of parliament, told the Kyiv Post that the president was in Kharkiv but
would not be taking part in a meeting planned by the regional governor to
discuss separating the eastern part of the country from the west.

But her words conflicted with those of a
top Party of Regions member of parliament and longtime Yanukovych loyalist, who
said that the president was not in the country.

Rostislav Pavlenko of Vitali Klitschko’s
opposition UDAR party said that parliament had requested information from
Ukr-aero-rukh, the nation’s air traffic regulator, regarding the whereabouts of
Yanukovych, and was awaiting a response.

Unian news agency reported later in the
evening that Yanukovych had fled to Russia.

Protesters expand control in Kyiv

Meanwhile, without a single shot fired
protesters took control of the government neighborhood of Kyiv, with members of
EuroMaidan Self-Defense standing guard at the Presidential Administration and
the Verkhovna Rada. After months of a heavy police presence in the capital, it
seemed not one officer could be found in the city.

On Friday, Yanukovych signed a deal with
opposition leaders that was brokered by European Union foreign ministers to end
the political crisis that has engulfed the nation for more than three months
and deadly violence that careened the country toward the brink of civil war.

The deal stipulated that Yanukovych
would support early elections and surrender some of his powers.

But the deal was not well received by
anti-government protesters on the square, who cheered when a member of the
far-right Pravy Sektor stole the microphone away from opposition leaders late
on Feb. 21 to deliver an ultimatum to the president: resign, or else.

On the streets, jubilation over
Yanukovych’s reported resignation were mixed with anger.

Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko,
now an opposition leader, called today’s developments a victory. But he warned
of the threat of violence and separatist movements in Ukraine’s east and on the
Crimean peninsula.

In Kharkiv, thousands of members of
local council from eastern and southern parts of the country met at the behest
of Kharkiv Regional Government Mykhailo Dobkin, where the group reportedly declared
they are taking responsibility for constitutional order in the country.

Lutsenko said the nation’s new leaders
must act fast to sign a political and trade agreement with the European Union.