Putin disagrees that Yanukovych fled Kyiv
MOSCOW. April 17 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin does not agree that Viktor Yanukovych fled Ukraine during the recent events in Kyiv.
"I don't agree that he fled," Putin said during a Q&A session on Thursday.
Putin acknowledged, however, that Yanukovych did have to leave Kyiv. "He didn't just flee Kyiv, but he left for provinces, and as soon as he traveled from Kyiv to a province, the buildings of the presidential secretariat and the government were immediately seized," he said.
Yanukovych presumed that an understanding had been reached with the opposition forces when he signed a February 21 agreement guaranteed by the foreign ministers of Poland, France, and Germany, Putin said.
"Its essence was that he would not use the army and force, would withdraw Interior Ministry units, including [the special task force] Berkut from the capital, and the opposition would leave the administrative buildings it had seized, dismantle the barricades, and disarm its people," Putin said.
Yanukovych agreed to early parliamentary elections, the reinstatement of the 2004 constitution, and presidential elections in December 2014, he said.
"If they [the opposition] had demanded, I think he would have agreed in the end even to early presidential elections in a month or a month and a half. In principle, he had already agreed to everything. But no, as soon as he pulled Interior Ministry units out of the capital, they [the opposition] immediately went further, seized his secretariat building and the government building, and staged a coup," Putin said.
