Yanukovych Believes Refusal Of Good Neighborly Relations With Russia Is Ukraine's Mistake

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2021) Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych expressed the belief that Ukraine's main mistake over the 30 years of its independence is the refusal of good neighborly relations with Russia.

Ukraine will celebrate the 30th anniversary of independence on August 24. Yanukovych left the country in 2014 after a coup.

"I am deeply convinced that the main mistake in our 30-year history was not a betrayed trust in Russia, but a refusal of good neighborliness with it," Yanukovych said in his address seen by Sputnik.

According to the former president, the refusal of good relations with Russia led to a split in the Ukrainian society, to social instability, a deep economic crisis, rampant nationalist organizations, persecution of the opposition, and closure of media outlets undesired by the regime.

"This led to the fact that Donbas residents are invited to leave for Russia if they do not want to support the violent Ukrainization, which is, oddly enough, carried out by the Russian-speaking leadership of the state; and the residents of Crimea are denied the right to consider the peninsula their homeland, since they are supposedly only temporary guests there," Yanukovych added.