Ukraine sends request to Russia for whereabouts, detention of ex-president Yanukovych

KIEV, February 6. /TASS/. Ukraine’s top prosecutor Vitaly Yarema said on Friday he has sent a request to Russia on the whereabouts and detention of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and other former senior Ukrainian officials.

"I have sent to Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office a request on establishing the location and the detention of Yanukovych…" Yarema told the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

Other politicians on the list include former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and ex-head of the country’s Security Service, Alexander Yakymenko.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General accused Yanukovych of having inflicted the damage to the country’s economy estimated at around 100 billion hryvnias (or more than $12 billion at that exchange rate).

The ex-Ukrainian president is also suspected of "usurping power" by abolishing the constitutional reform of 2004, while expanding presidential powers and limiting the role of the parliament.

Yarema also said an investigation is launched into the alleged criminal group, consisting of the country’s top officials as of 2010-2014, which had been set up by Yanukovych to have "illicit gains."

The state has already taken back more than 500 hectares of stolen land worth over 1 billion hryvnias, including Yanukovych’s luxury Mezhyhirya residence. Last year, a total of 97,000 hectares of land estimated at 7 billion hryvnias were returned, he said.

Yanukovych was elected as Ukraine’s president on February 25, 2010. On February 21, 2014 Yanukovych fled Kiev, denouncing what he called a violent coup in Ukraine. The next day the parliament voted to terminate his powers.

Earlier this week, Ukraine’s parliament adopted a law on depriving Yanukovych of the president’s title.