Former Ukrainian President Yanukovych was taken to Russia twice in February 2014
Viktor Yanukovych was conveyed to Russia twice at the end of April 2014, said Alexey Donskoy, prosecutor in the Yanukovych case.
“In fact he ended up going there twice. The first time was the night between the 22nd and 23rd of February 2014. From the Urzuf settlement in the Donetsk region, which is on the coast of the Sea of Azov, he and Klyuyev, a bodyguard and escorts [Yanukovych’s mistress Lyubov Polezhay], were taken to Yeysk by two Russian helicopters. How these helicopters were not noticed by the Ukrainian border guards is an open question,” he said in an interview with the Russian publication Novaya Gazeta.
Yanukovych was in Russian territory for 10-12 hours, and made a domestic flight from Yeysk to Anapa on a military transport plane. It is unclear whether or not he met with any Russian officials.
“Around 13:00 Kyiv time, he flew from Anapa to Gvardeyskoye, to a military air base near Simferopol, which was occupied by the Russian Black Sea Fleet at the time. He was in the Crimea, at the fleet’s base until the night between the 23rd and 24th of February, and then back to Russian Federation territory on a Black Sea Fleet military vessel. We have evidence on the general of the Russian army who led the operation to transport Yanukovych from the Donetsk region to Krasnodar Krai and from there to the Crimea. The identity of one of the Russian president’s guards has also been established. These two oversaw the group which carried out the mission, simultaneously coordinating their actions with Yanukovych’s chief guard Kobzar and his colleague Bernatzky,” Donskoy reported.
“Yanukovych did not make the decision of his own initiative. If he had simply intended to run away from a mythical threat, he would have done so from Kharkiv,” the prosecutor concluded.
In November during a video interrogation, Yanukovych confirmed that he went to the Crimea, from where he was transferred to Russia.