After rejecting the
Ukrainian-European Association Agreement, Yanukovych was ousted from office in the
Revolution of Dignity. He currently lives in exile in Russia.
[6] Yanukovych served as the governor of
Donetsk Oblast, a province in
eastern Ukraine, from 1997 to 2002. He was
Prime Minister of Ukraine from 21 November 2002 to 7 December 2004 and from 28 December 2004 to 5 January 2005, under President
Leonid Kuchma. Yanukovych first ran for president in
2004: he advanced to the runoff election and was initially declared the winner against former Prime Minister
Viktor Yushchenko. However, the election was fraught with allegations of
electoral fraud and
voter intimidation. This caused widespread citizen protests and
Kyiv's
Independence Square was occupied in what became known as the
Orange Revolution. The
Ukrainian Supreme Court nullified the runoff election and ordered a second runoff. Yanukovych lost this second election to Yushchenko. He served as Prime Minister for a second time from 4 August 2006 to 18 December 2007, under President Yushchenko.
Yanukovych was
elected president in 2010, defeating Prime Minister
Yulia Tymoshenko. The election was judged free and fair by international observers.
[7][8] November 2013 saw the beginning of a series of events that led to his ousting as president.
[9][10][11] Yanukovych rejected a pending
EU association agreement, choosing instead to pursue a Russian loan bailout and closer ties with Russia. This led to protests and the occupation of Kyiv's Independence Square, a series of events dubbed the "
Euromaidan" by proponents of aligning Ukraine toward the
European Union. In January 2014, this developed into deadly clashes in Independence Square and in other areas across Ukraine, as Ukrainian citizens confronted the
Berkut and other special police units.
[12]