V. Yanukovych claims he still remains Ukrainian President

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had a press-conference today on Doni-Rostov. This was the second public speech after Yanukovych’s resignation.

According to Ria NOVOSTI Yanukovych warned on Tuesday that “dark forces” are working to foment civil war in the troubled former Soviet nation.

During a short address in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovych insisted that he not only remains Ukraine’s president, but that he is also still the head of the armed forces.

“I would like to say that I’m alive and I feel good,” he said.

Yanukovych said that a presidential election planned to take place in Ukraine on May 25 would be “absolutely illegitimate,” and that any government formed as a result of the election would be illegal.

“As far as I am aware, the laws of the United States forbid the provision of financial aid to any state where the legally elected president has been overthrown,” he said. “I intend to appeal to Congress, the Senate and the Constitutional Court.”

Yanukovych also accused interim authorities of planning to give weapons to what he called “militant nationalist organizations.”

During his speech Yanukovych did not mention the situation in the southern Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which has been overrun by Russian troops in recent weeks ahead of a referendum on joining Russia scheduled for March 16.

Yanukovych said that he still has plans to go back to Ukraine.

“As soon as circumstances allow, I will definitely return to Kiev,” he said.