Ukraine’s Tymoshenko says she does not want post of prime minister

Tuesday, 25 February 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, freed from prison guard on Saturday after her arch-rival President Viktor Yanukovich fled Kiev, said on Sunday she did not want to be considered for the post of prime minister.

Earlier, her supporters in parliament said she was one of the three favourites to be named to head a government of national unity. “It was a surprise for me when I heard that I was being proposed for the post of prime minister. Nobody agreed this with me or discussed it with me.” “I am grateful for the respect this shows, but I ask not to be considered for this post,” she said in comments on her website. Her comments suggested that Tymoshenko – who was narrowly defeated by Yanukovich for the presidency in February 2010 and was later jailed in 2011 for abuse of office as prime minister – may be eying another run to be head of state.

New Ukraine leaders say Yanukovich wanted for mass murder

Reuters: Fugitive Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, ousted after bloody street protests in which demonstrators were shot by police snipers, is wanted for mass murder, authorities announced on Monday. As rival neighbours east and west of the former Soviet republic said a power vacuum in Kiev must not lead to the country breaking apart, acting President Oleksander Turchinov said Ukraine’s new leaders wanted relations with Russia on a “new, equal and good-neighbourly footing that recognises and takes into account Ukraine’s European choice”. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will travel to Ukraine on Monday, where she is expected to discuss measures to shore up the ailing economy, which the finance ministry said required $35 billion in foreign aid over the next two years, with the first tranche needed within two weeks. Yanukovich, who vanished on Saturday, is still at large. “An official case for the mass murder of peaceful citizens has been opened,” acting interior minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his Facebook profile. “Yanukovich and other people responsible for this have been declared wanted,” he said.