Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych holds a news conference in Russia amid rising tension in his home country, most notably in Crimea.
Yanukovych, speaking from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, near the Ukrainian border, said that he intends “to continue to struggle for the future of Ukraine, against terror and fear” and said that he was forced to flee to Russia after threats form “young neo-fascist thugs”.
He went on to call the current Ukrainian government “illegitimate” and the situation in his home country as “lawlessness, lack of authority, and terror”.
He maintains that he is the current, legitimate and democratically elected President of Ukraine, and that the only way for the country to come out of its current crisis is to implement the agreement he signed last week with opposition leaders and European foreign ministers in Kiev before fleeing to Russia.
Earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron and German chancellor Angela Merkel held a joint press conference in which they discussed the situation in Ukraine, where Cameron said:
“Ukraine [is]a clear example of where it is right for the nations of the European Union to work closely together. We both support a united and democratic Ukraine, and we support the aspirations of the Ukrainian people to live in a truly democratic society under the rule of law, free from corruption and intimidation.”
