Ex‑Ukrainian President Yanukovych claims he pushed forward Ukraine's bid to join EU

The Russian propaganda agency RIA Novosti reported the information.

The fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych spoke to Russian journalists for the first time in 6 years. He stated that he sought to achieve Ukraine's accession to the EU.

"Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin - ed.) is absolutely right. Indeed, I purposefully worked on bringing Ukraine closer to the European Union. I set the ultimate goal of Ukraine's accession to the EU. Another matter is that the partners from the EU side behaved, to put it mildly, incorrectly during the negotiations: they did not show understanding of the complexities of the economic situation in Ukraine, I will say it directly, they showed arrogance. But I controlled this process of Ukraine's accession to the EU and moved it forward," Yanukovych asserts.

He also declared that he did not support the idea of joining NATO, as this could have caused a civil war.

"But I have always been a categorical and convinced opponent of Ukraine's accession to NATO. I have always clearly understood that this is a catastrophe for Ukraine, this is a path to nowhere. This is a direct road to civil war," Yanukovych added.