Builders abandon Yanukovych ‘cottage’ – Regina Leader
One wing of the three-storey structure was said to be for the Yanukovych family. The other wing was to have been an art gallery looking out at a winter garden and the sea.
To make room for the copper-roofed villa, which is in the middle of an old-growth
forest, groves of very rare species of pine and juniper had been ripped out. To make it accessible, a private road several hundred metres long was cut into the mountain.
The man in whose honour this shrine was being erected is still on the lam. After surfacing in the northeastern mining region of Donetsk on Saturday and in the old British port of Balaclava on Sunday, the trail has gone stone cold.
What Yanukovych has left in his wake is an acting administration that is already so quarrelsome that it will be at least Thursday before they announce a new government amid rising tensions in Sevastopol where those attending an endless series of protest rallies declared their wish to reintegrate with Russia, which the Crimea had been a part of until 1954.
With few Ukrainian flags in sight, and the Russian flag flying everywhere, few people were hiding where their sentiments lay. Outside the city hall, near monuments to Sevastopol and the other Soviet hero cities in the fight against the Nazis, one of several handmade signs screamed: “Kyiv cannot give us orders.”
“We want to separate from Ukraine,” said Svetlana Pletneva. “We are Russian. We speak Russian. Sevastopol will always be a Russian city.
“We are being mocked by these people who made the revolution in Kyiv. This will not be tolerated. Mother Russia will take us eventually.”
Nor was there any affection for Yanukovych, who won 84 per cent of the vote in Crimea in presidential elections only four years ago.
“The Ukrainian peasants are our enemy and Yanukovych is the worst of them all,” said Daniel Romanenko, who, despite his Ukrainian name, described himself as totally Russian.
Wearing a homemade officer’s uniform that included a tightly braided horse whip, Romanenko vowed to use it on Yanukovych if he ever got the chance.
By nightfall, the angry crowd of protesters had grown to several hundred. The man they all blamed for their misfortune had vanished and his gigantic, new villa looked as it would remain unfinished forever.
DEVELOPMENTS IN UKRAINE
Tensions in Ukraine are high following the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych. Here are some developments in the former Soviet republic: Financial pressures mount The country faces possible default and its currency is in danger of collapse. The country’s interim finance minister says the country needs about $35 billion US in aid to keep the finances afloat over the next two years. The European Union’s top foreign policy official urged
the country to put together a reform plan so the EU could consider providing financial aid. Protests began when Yanukovych ditched a plan for closer integration with the EU, and instead took a bailout loan from Moscow.
Russia weighs in Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has condemned Ukraine’s new authorities. Much of Ukraine’s future is tied up in the Russian reaction to Yanukovych’s ouster. A senior Russian lawmaker said his country will protect its compatriots in Ukraine if their lives are in danger. Eastern Ukraine, including Crimea, is dominated by ethnic Russians. A Russian flag flew Tuesday in front of the city council building in Sevastopol – a key Crimean port where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based.
Former president on the run Yanukovych is still on the lam after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He is implicated in the deaths of 82 people in last week’s violent crackdown in Kyiv’s Independence Square.
Yanukovych aide shot Andriy Klyuyev, who was Yanukovych’s chief of staff until last weekend, was shot Monday and hospitalized, according to a spokesman.
Race for the next president The campaign for presidential elections, set for May 25, began with former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko as a top contender.