Ukraine's New President Shows Poor Knowledge of Geography
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych made an embarrassing geography mistake yet again during his visit to Brussels.
During his interview with Euronews channel, Yanukovych confused Kosovo with Serbia and Montenegro, and North Ossetia with South Ossetia, UNIAN reports.
Answering the question whether Ukraine recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Yanukovych said:
“I’ve already said once that we are against double standard policies. I meant Serbia when I said that. Or, to be exact, recognition of Montenegro independence… Recognition of Kosovo independence.”
“Even back then it was clear that conflicts on the territory of suspended conflict will only aggravate. And the next good example is North Ossetia,” Yanukovych said, confusing North and South Ossetia.
“I think that we have to emphasize once again that international rules that must work for everyone cannot have exceptions to them, “he added. Answering the question about his readiness to recognize their independence, he said “Currently this issue is not on my agenda. We had a precedent that could have been avoided, but still happened.”
After the interview, Yanukovych’s support group asked the journalist to edit the mistakes in the interview.
This is not the first embarrassing moment for Yanukovych. Earlier he confused Kosovo with Montenegro, and corrected himself only after he was told to do so by his press secretary.
Before the presidential elections Yanukovych made an embarrassing literature mistake that became very popular. He called a famous writer Anton Chekhov “a great Ukrainian poet.”
