Who is Viktor Yanukovych & why is Russia eager to replace Zelenskyy with a fugitive Prez?

Amid the war, Ukraine’s former fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych may replace incumbent President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as soon as Russia declares victory over its neighbouring country. According to multiple media reports, Russia has brought former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to Minsk-- a major step to bring him back to his earlier post. Notably, the major development came as Zelenskyy has vowed to keep fighting against Russia despite numerous offers from the West to flee from the country. 

Who is Viktor Yanukovych?

Viktor Yanukovych had entered politics in 1997 at the age of 46 and was chosen as the governor of Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. He served as a governor from 1997 to 2002. In 2004, he contested for president for the first time during the most controversial elections. At that time, multiple media houses reported major election fraud, resulting in the Orange revolution-- a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005. Subsequently, Supreme Court nullified the earlier elections results and ordered the government to conduct fresh polls. In the subsequent elections, he lost badly to Yushchenko. Despite this, he managed to hold the post of Prime Minister of the country from 2006 to 2007. Later, he was elected as president in 2010 with the help of a former intelligence officer and then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Why did Viktor Yanukovych flee Ukraine?

According to media reports, Yanukovych had peacefully run the Presidency for the next three years. However, from 2013, the miseries of Yanukovych had started after he refused to sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The unexpected response from Yanukovych came despite knowing a number of protests were being held in several regions of the country demanding the resignation of Yanukovych. Within a few days, the protestors chose a violent route and clashed with Ukrainian police at Maidan in Kyiv. At that time, a social media campaign against him had also fuelled the protest further to other corners of the country.

The protest at central Kyiv became the rallying point for anti-Yanukovych protests with the Twitter hashtag "Euromaidan" further fuelling the protest. As the condition deteriorated, he fled from the country and reportedly took "shelter" at a five-star hotel under Moscow’s protection. Subsequently, screenwriter Oleksandr Turchynov came to power followed by Petro Poroshenko. However, the Ukrainian people were again overthrown and had chosen Zelensky as their president in 2019. Since then, he has been pushing Ukraine to become a NATO member, on the other hand, Putin has been trying his best to destabilise his government and establish a pro-Russian puppet.

Image: AP