Ukrainian lawmaker confirms death of Yanukovych’s son

“Viktor Viktorovych Yanukovych has died under tragic circumstances. He died as he lived – at the wheel of a car,” Shufrych said, according to his press service’s posting on Facebook.

Yanukovych’s son Viktor was born in Yenakiyeve in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on July 16 1981. He is a politician, a deputy of the fifth and sixth Verkhovna Rada, and holds a mastery certificate in car racing.

Ukrainian media reported earlier on March 22 that the former president’s son Viktor Yanukovych had died in a sunken car on Lake Baikal in Russia.

The Baikal Rescue Service told Interfax earlier, meanwhile, that there was no one with the surname Yanukovych inside a car that fell through the ice on Lake Baikal in the Irkutsk region on March 20.

“Preliminary reports indicate that four Ukrainian citizens were rescued after the accident. The driver was a local resident. None of the rescued persons had the surname Yanukovych,” a spokesman for the Baikal Rescue Service said.

A source in the regional emergency situations department told Interfax that the driver had not survived and that his name was Viktor Davydov.

Reports were circulated earlier on Sunday claiming that former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s son Viktor allegedly died in a sunken car on Lake Baikal.

The Irkutsk regional emergency situations department said on Saturday that police were investigating the death of a man in a car that had fallen through the ice on Lake Baikal.

“Police were informed on Friday evening that a Volkswagen had fallen through the ice on Lake Baikal near Cape Khoboi 200 meters from the Olkhon Island and that one person died in the accident,” it said. Overall, there were six people inside the car. The survivors were given medical attention.

The regional emergency situations department also said that, “in violation of the warnings the car drove onto the thin ice and fell through near Cape Khoboi, where the lake is over 20 meters deep. The passengers had been planning to take photographs of themselves on the frozen lake,” it said.

Five people managed to escape from the car at 11:40 p.m., Irkutsk time. They were collected and transported to the village of Sakhyurta. When the rescue team returned to the scene of accident they found the dead driver.

Neither the emergency situations department, nor the police announced the name of the victim.