Yanukovich remains missing as new government strips his assets

The whereabouts of Viktor Yanukovich remained unclear on Sunday, a day after the ousted Ukrainian president fled the capital and Yulia Tymoshenko, heroine of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, was freed from prison in the country's second revolution in 10 years.

Ukraine's new acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, on Sunday told parliament that police were working with state security and the prosecutor's office to investigate what he called "grave crimes against the Ukrainian people, including those by former state leaders," following Saturday's ousting Mr Yanukovich.

Meanwhile parliament stripped Mr Yanukovich of his luxury estate. The sprawling forested estate of graceful waterways and summer houses - half the size of Monaco - one hour's drive from Kiev, had over the weekend become something of a tourist attraction for Ukrainian citizens amazed at the opulent life of their former leader.

Hours after being released from jail, Ms Tymoshenko, announced she would run for the presidency in fresh elections to be held on May 26.

She told anti-government protesters not to leave the capital's central square, where many have camped for three months, until "people that you trust are in power".

"Until you complete everything to the very end, to the final step, no one must leave," said Ms Tymoshenko, who was jailed by her arch-rival Mr Yanukovich in 2011.

The appearance of a frail-sounding Ms Tymoshenko, speaking from a wheelchair because of back problems, was the climax of a day of extraordinary drama that saw the president's disappearance, then reappearance, then ouster.

Ukraine's parliament voted on Saturday to remove president Mr Yanukovich barely an hour after the embattled leader appeared in a video address to the nation saying a coup d'etat was under way against him.

Three-month-old mass protests against Mr Yanukovich turned into a revolution a day after the president and opposition signed an agreement intended to end violence that killed dozens this week and brought the country to the brink of civil war.

After parliament passed the motion to remove the president with a constitutional majority shortly after 5pm - supported by many members of the president's own party - MPs cheered, then stood and sang the national anthem, hands on hearts. There was applause too on the streets of central Kiev, as protesters gathered in cafes to watch events on television.

The events in Ukraine are a huge setback for Russian president Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader persuaded Mr Yanukovich not to sign an integration agreement with the European Union last November - the initial spark for the protests - but instead accept a $15bn bailout designed to push Ukraine back towards Moscow.

Mr Yanukovich disappeared for several hours early on Saturday, with protesters taking over Kiev's presidential administration and parliament in effect taking control of the country and passing a series of laws - including one to release Ms Tymoshenko.

But Mr Yanukovich reappeared defiantly late afternoon in a video interview, accusing parliament of waging a constitutional "coup". He said he had flown to Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine after threats to his safety, with his car being shot at.

"I am threatened all the time with ultimatums. I am not planning to flee the country. I am not planning to resign. I am the legally elected president," Mr Yanukovich said.

"What is happening today is . . . vandalism, banditry and an overthrow of government," he added. "I will do everything to prevent my country from a split, to stop the bloodshed. I don't know how I will do this. I have met today with people. I will travel in the east and south of the country which is more or less safe."

Those comments provoked concerns over a potential split in the country between the largely pro-European, Ukrainian-speaking west, and the Russian-leaning and largely Russian-speaking south and east, Mr Yanukovich's political base.

Leaders of eastern regions had earlier appeared to challenge the legitimacy of the national parliament, saying they would take control of their territories until constitutional order was restored. But the national government, still headed by a Yanukovich appointee, said it was working together with the parliament and constitutional order was being respected.

Mr Yanukovich also appeared to have lost control of key levers of power, as the interior ministry, security services and army said they would not act against the people. Parliament put its own representative in charge of the army.

Crucially, the president also seemed to have lost support of the country's wealthiest oligarchs, who have heavy sway in the east.

Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man and previously a Yanukovich backer from Donetsk, in the industrial east, issued a statement saying: "My position remains unchanged: I am for a strong, independent and united Ukraine. Today I place a special focus on the word 'united' as this has never been more important."

People familiar with the situation said Mr Akhmetov wanted his MPs to work with the parliament.

Mr Yanukovich later boarded a charter flight from his political base of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, whose destination was unknown. But state border guards said they had prohibited the flight from leaving after finding its documents were not in order, and Mr Yanukovich left protected by armed guards.

Oleksandr Turchinov, a Tymoshenko ally who took over on Saturday as parliament speaker and then acting president suggested Mr Yanukovich had been attempting to flee to Russia.

Moscow remains Mr Yanukovich's biggest remaining potential backer, with Russian media and officials using strikingly similar language to that of Ukraine's president to describe events.

Russia's foreign ministry expressed "grave concern" at the failure of Friday's peace deal between the president and opposition leaders on Friday. It said the opposition was being driven by "armed extremists and thugs whose actions pose a direct threat to the sovereignty and constitutional order in Ukraine".

But Alexei Pushkov, hawkish head of the Russian parliament's foreign relations committee, conceded that Mr Yanukovich was "finished". Noting that the guards had left the president's luxury estate at Mezhyhiriya outside Kiev, Mr Pushkov tweeted: "He's run away himself, his guards have run away, his personnel have scattered. A sad end for a president."

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