ROSTOV-ON-DON. May 12 (Interfax) - Viktor Yanukovych said he understands the decision made by the people of Donbas to come to the referendum and vote for their independence.

"Why did an overwhelming majority of citizens who live in Donbas come to the referendum and vote for any other state system except for a system in which you can call your citizens terrorists and kill them with impunity? Because the people of Ukraine have reached the limit of their patience," Yanukovych said in a statement possessed by Interfax.

Yanukovych said he is convinced that the new Kyiv administration is to blame for the deaths of the people on Kyiv's Maidan in February 2014. He calls on all citizens to "look at all events preceding the referendum in the southeastern regions of Ukraine closely and objectively and give them a fair and balanced evaluation."

"Some people have probably not realized it yet, but reasonable people understood a long time ago that the blood of the 'heavenly hundred' is also on the hands of the new administration [