With former President Viktor Yanukoych and most of his cronies on the run, the full extent to which they have looted Ukraine is now coming to light as activists and journalists sift through documents abandoned in the haste of flight. Document scraps recovered by bne point to a billion-dollar fraud masterminded by one of Yanukvych's closest allies, which is giving rise to concerns that the financial position of Ukraine could be even worse than pessimists predict.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has reportedly ordered an immediate test of combat readiness of troops in central and western Russia in a move that will dramatically elevate fears of a separatist threat to the Ukraine, already ravaged by weeks of violent protest that led to the removal of its pro-Russian leader, Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukraine's parliament voted on Tuesday to send fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych to the International Criminal Court, while his acting successor expressed concern about "signs of separatism" in Russian-speaking Crimea.
The elite security police force that spearheaded most of the attacks on protesters in Kyiv last week has been disbanded, Ukraine’s acting interior minister announced Wednesday morning. But members of the force were immediately offered sanctuary in the pro-Russian Crimean Peninsula, further stoking concerns about divided loyalties in Ukraine.
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine—Thousands of pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters squared off in dueling rallies Wednesday outside the Crimean regional parliament, where the future of the coastal region, which has deep ties to Russia, was to be discussed.
The palatial compound of Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine, was opened to the public over the weekend, offering a glimpse of his lavish lifestyle.
Someone wanted the records to disappear without a trace under the gray waves of the Kyiv Reservoir. Instead, they are ending up on the Internet for everyone in the world to see.
Struggling to reach a deal to form a new majority coalition in Parliament, and under excruciating pressure because of a looming economic disaster, the Ukrainian lawmakers temporarily running the country on Tuesday delayed until Thursday the naming of an acting prime minister and a provisional government.
WASHINGTON — Televisions around the White House were aglow with pictures of Ukrainians in the streets, demanding to be heard and toppling a government aligned with Russia. It was an invigorating moment, and it spurred a president already rethinking his approach to the world.
Men respect them, women feed them, and all the young ladies want their photos taken with them. They’re Kyiv’s masked and armored “self-defense” forces, and they’re the most popular authority around town.
In the hours after Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev, reports started surfacing that there were documents floating in the reservoir on his palatial 350-acre estate outside the capital. The estate is well known to the media as an off-limits locale; journalists, in fact, had never entered more than 300 yards past the front gate, and even at the height of Yanukovych’s openness and good relations, they had only been allowed to the front door to receive cakes on journalism day.
Ukraine’s new authorities navigated tricky political waters Tuesday, launching a new presidential campaign, working on a new government and trying to seek immediate financial help from the West.
Over the years, my press pass has afforded me the opportunity to join, as a kind of participant/observer, in the sacking of various interior ministries, newly liberated prisons and the odd presidential palace. I've seen mansions of the once-mighty fall, and get quickly looted, gutted, torched, bombed. I will confess there is something undeniably mesmerizing about watching the proles breach the walls and get their first gawk inside the surreal inner sanctums and badly decorated Xanadus of a Moammar Gaddafi or a Saddam Hussein or his witless sons and skeevy family members.
These past few days in Kiev have provided something new.
When the history of the bloody turbulence in Ukraine is written, a 26-year-old who learned combat skills in the army cadets may be recorded as the man who made up Viktor Yanukovich's mind to cut and run.
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s interim authorities balked at forming a new government Tuesday as horse-trading among parties in parliament continued, despite pleas from the European Union to quickly pave the way for an emergency aid package.
Western diplomats scrambled on Tuesday to stave off an economic collapse in Ukraine, as Russia pledged not to intervene in the crisis-hit country after the dramatic ouster of pro-Moscow leader Viktor Yanukovych.
The Ukrainian parliament has voted to send fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych to The Hague to be tried over the violence that led to at least 82 deaths in Kiev last week.
Ukraine's parliament has postponed until Thursday plans to elect a new national unity government, following the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine's parliament speaker and acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, made the announcement on Tuesday, the day on which the legislature was due to unveil its new leaders.
Ukraine's interim President Olexander Turchynov has warned of the dangers of separatism following the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych. Many in Ukraine's Russian-speaking regions oppose his overthrow and the installation of a more European-leaning interim administration.
The Obama administration has signalled it no longer recognises Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine’s president as western support firms up for the new leadership in Kyiv.