Viktor Yanukovych: Opposition leaders wanted to kill me

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych stated that the head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Lyovochkin orchestrated the dispersal of Euromaidan students on November 30 in Kiev, Arguments and Facts newspaper reports.

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych stated that he did not order to disperse the demonstrators. It was a provocation organized by Sergei Lyovochkin, the then head of the presidential administration.

"In my opinion, it was a well-organized provocation, to push a peaceful protest in a radical direction. I have no direct evidence to prove that Lyovochkin is responsible for the provocation on November 30. However, such suspicions are based on quite weighty grounds," said Yanukovych.

"If I had wanted it, police forces would have smashed Maidan in the evening of February 19. It was important for me to find a compromise and save the country," Yanukovysh also said. 

Yanukovych said that he decided to leave Ukraine because the opposition was preparing an attempt on his life.

"They had one option - to find one of the four constitutional ways to remove me from power. Impeachment didn't work. Recognizing me an incapacitated individual when I'm alive and healthy was unreal. There were two other ways: voluntary resignation or death. Opposition leaders would call me, urging me to resign. I strongly refused. Afterwards, they started taking specific actions that were threatening me and the people around me. The information that I could obtain, and, most importantly, the attempt that were made, clearly said that they decided to kill me," Yanukovych said.