Ukraine – Unrest and Protests Could Lead to Civil War

Steven Petrov
The Paw Print

“Don’t shoot against the Ukrainian people” said Viktor Yanukovych

The former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, stated his official position on the current situation within his country and his fears of potential Civil war. He was interviewed by journalists of many different European medias in the Russian city, Rostov-on-Don, earlier on Sunday, April 13. The reasoning behind Yanukovych’s fears is mostly concerned with the economic bankruptcy that Ukraine has headed to as well as the refusal of the people to accept the newly established nationalist government.
Just a reminder, Yanukovych was elected as President in 2010 and was supposed to stay in office at least until 2015.
However, ever since the beginning of 2013 series of political decisions made by Yanukovych, from the refusal of the EU association agreement to the pursuing of a Russian bailout and closer ties with Russia, created mass protests which eventually developed into deadly clashes into the heart of Ukraine. All of these events escalated to the point on February 22nd where the Ukrainian Parliament voted to remove him from his duties, due to his inability to fulfill them.
Viktor Yanukovych officially appealed to the Ukrainian military not to execute the “illegal and criminal orders” that the new government has given them. The “criminal and illegal” orders that the former president refers to are concerning the permission that the Ukrainian military has to open fire against Ukrainian civilians under severe circumstances during the protests. Yanukovych warned that the people in charge of this in Kiev will be facing the legal consequences for their actions in the near future.
In his opinion some of the US political and governmental agencies are in the heart of the Ukrainian problems, due to their extensive usage of their diplomatic capabilities and influence.
The exiled former president also stated that the US CIA director, John Brennan, had visited Ukraine prior to the “open fire” orders to be given to the Ukrainian military. Yanukovych alleged that the US is encouraging the blood conflicts and is not helping this conflict to be resolved peacefully.
The former President suggested that the only way to get out of this slowly developing crisis is to hold a national referendum, which will calm down the population and will stop a potential Civil war from occurring.