Poroshenko 'Prepares for Future' Calling Yanukovych’s Ousting Illegitimate

News | 21.06.2015 | 18:53

Sputnik - President Petro Poroshenko's intention to ask the Ukrainian constitutional court to recognize the ousting of former President Viktor Yanukovych as illegitimate is aimed to "prepare the ground for his own future," a representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in the Minsk peace talks said. Poroshenko, who actively supported the Maidan protests before the February 2014 coup, said Saturday that the law on "the removal of the presidential title from Viktor Yanukovych" was unconstitutional. This move sparked speculations that Poroshenko unintentionally agreed that the 2014 coup had been illegitimate. "I believe that Poroshenko paves the way for his own future. After all, the decision of the Ukrainian [parliament] Verkhovna Rada on the removal of Viktor Yanukovych's presidential status was a precedent, which Poroshenko absolutely did not need," Denis Pushilin said. "Making such a statement, he [Poroshenko] tries to nip at the root a possibility of a similar situation in relation to his own presidency. He understands that people, who in the future will come to power in Ukraine, will strongly criticize and condemn his actions as president. And I am sure that he is waiting for an even more disgraced future than Yanukovych." Following the Ukrainian president's controversial remark, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lower House of Russia's parliament Alexei Pushkov said that it seems like even Kiev recognized that the overthrow of Ukraine's ex-president had no relation to law, while the EU and PACE both denied it. The DPR envoy added that it was Petro Poroshenko who "did not only let the already difficult situation escalate to a military conflict, but he almost drowned the country in bloodshed." Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February 2014 following his refusal to sign an EU association agreement. A military standoff between Kiev government forces and independence supporters in southeastern Ukraine began two months after Yanukovych was ousted.