Ukrainian President Yanukovych left Kyiv and arrived in Kharkiv, the US State Department announced in a briefing on Friday, February 22 (Saturday in Kyiv). According to a State Department official who wanted to remain anonymous, Washington learned this in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Acting Foreign Minister said that Yanukovych went to participate in “a meeting.”

The acting Minister rejected the idea that the president “fled Kyiv.” According to him, such trips are nothing strange and Yanukovych is in a habit of visiting his power base in the East after important political developments. Yanukovych’s departure from Kyiv to Kharkiv was announced by the leader of Maidan’s Self-Defense and Batkivshchyna party MP Andriy Parubiy. Also, rumors to this extent have spread in social networks and mass media, however, with no proof.