Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was on the run on Monday, possibly somewhere in southern Ukraine, hunted by police for "mass murder" linked to the revolt against his rule in which scores have been killed, according to the Associated Press.
Yanukovich, 63, now accompanied only by his chief aide and a handful of security guards, was known to have been in the pro-Russian Crimea at midnight on Sunday after zig-zagging furtively around eastern Ukraine in a bid to find a safe haven, the AP reported.
More than 80 people were shot dead in the capital Kiev last week, most of them anti-government protesters, in a bloody climax to a three-month, largely peaceful, campaign against Yanukovich's policies, known as the 'Euro-Maidan,' according to the AP.
Yanukovich and his entourage have driven off to an unknown destination having shut down their communications systems, Ukraine's interim interior minister said, in a move to avoid being tracked, according to the AP.
"An official case for the mass murder of peaceful citizens has been opened," Arsen Avakov, a minister wrote on Facebook, the AP reported. "Yanukovich and other people responsible for this have been declared wanted."
It was an ignominious political end for Yanukovich who has been publicly deserted by some of his closest erstwhile allies, stripped of his luxury residence outside Kiev and has had to witness the return of his arch-rival Yulia Tymoshenko, according to the AP.
Dumped now by his closest allies and backers after violence that shocked the world, Yanukovich fled Kiev by helicopter on Friday, the day when the 'Euro-maidan' told opposition leaders they rejected a deal they had done with him and demanded he immediately stepped down, the AP reported.
Andriy Klyuev, a minor oligarch who was Yanukovich's head of administration, appeared to be the only person left standing by Yanukovich's side, the AP reported. According to to reports, he is with Yanukovich in hiding.
Avakov said Yanukovich flew to Kharkiv, about 300 miles to the east where he stayed overnight in a state residence and recorded a defiant video message denouncing Ukraine's new leaders as 'bandits,' according to the AP.
In the video, he said he still regarded himself as the country's legitimate president and would try to defend his allies against unjust persecution, the AP reported.
On Saturday he flew by helicopter to Donetsk, his political stronghold, about 200 miles, to the south-east, where he tried to fly out on a private plane, possibly to Russia or other ex-Soviet republics such as Belarus or Azerbaijan, according to the AP.
