Update | Ukraine issues arrest warrant for ex-leader Yanukovych over ‘mass murder’
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev questions the legitimacy of Ukraine’s new leadership, saying Western countries which accept it are mistaken
Ukraine’s acting government issued a warrant on Monday for the arrest of President Viktor Yanukovych, last seen in the pro-Russian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, accusing him of mass crimes against protesters who stood up for months against his rule.
Calls are mounting in Ukraine to put Yanukovych on trial, after a tumultuous presidency in which he amassed powers, enriched his allies and cracked down on protesters. Anger boiled over last week after snipers attacked protesters in the bloodiest violence in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s new leadership and said that Western countries which accept it are mistaken, in his first reaction to the transfer of power in Kiev.
“Strictly speaking, there is no one for us to communicate with there today. The legitimacy of a whole number of organs of power that function there raises great doubts,” he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
“Some of our foreign, Western partners think otherwise ... This is some kind of aberration of perception when people call legitimate what is essentially the result of an armed mutiny,” Medvedev said, quoted by Russian news agencies.