Russian state media released a video message featuring former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who has been living in Russia since 2014. In the footage, Yanukovych claims that during his presidency he “worked purposefully on bringing Ukraine closer to the European Union,” but that EU representatives “behaved improperly,” reports the Baltimore Chronicle citing RIA Novosti.
Yanukovych stated that his long-term goal was Ukraine’s eventual accession to the EU. He added that “European partners showed no understanding of Ukraine’s economic challenges and acted arrogantly.” At the same time, he stressed that he personally oversaw the negotiation process and pushed it forward.
In the same address, the former president emphasized that he had always been “a categorical opponent of Ukraine’s accession to NATO.” According to Yanukovych, Kyiv’s membership in the Alliance “would have been a disaster and a direct road to civil war.”
The video did not specify when or where it was recorded.
Earlier, on September 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit that one of the reasons for what Moscow calls the “Ukrainian crisis” was “the West’s attempts to draw Ukraine into NATO.” He did not mention Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As a reminder, mass protests in Ukraine, later known as Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, began on November 21, 2013, after the Cabinet of Ministers decided to suspend preparations for signing the Association Agreement with the EU. At the end of February 2014, Viktor Yanukovych fled the country.
Earlier we wrote that assets of former head of security of fugitive president Yanukovych worth over UAH 100 million nationalized.