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Putin: organisers of coup in Kiev planned assassination of President Yanukovich

I set a task to save the life of Ukraine’s president; otherwise he would have been killed, Russia’s President said

VLADIVOSTOK, March 15. /TASS/. Organisers of the coup in Kiev in 2014 planned assassination of Viktor Yanukovich, the then President of Ukraine, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

"I invited to Kremlin heads of our intelligence services, the defence ministry, and set a task to save the life of Ukraine’s president; otherwise he would have been killed," Putin said in a film called Way to Motherland, which Rossiya 1 television channel broadcasted on Sunday.

"Our services of radio location actually began following up his cortege, and every time he got connected on the phone, they fixed his location," Putin said commenting on evacuation of President Yanukovich.

"There were big-calibre machine-guns - not to waste time. We were about to take him right from Donetsk: by land, or see or air. This was between the 22nd and the 23rd," the Russian president said.