Ukraine seeks fugitive leader over 'mass murder'

Ukraine issued an arrest warrant today for its ousted pro-Russian president over "mass murder" and appealed for USD 35 billion in Western aid as Moscow denounced Kiev's new reformist team as illegitimate.
The dramatic announcements by the ex-Soviet nation's untested but enthusiastic Western-leaning ministers -- approved by parliament over a chaotic weekend that saw president Viktor Yanukovych go into hiding -- came as the EU's top diplomat arrived in Kiev to buttress Ukraine's sudden tilt away from Russia.
Three months of relentless protests over Yanukovych's shock decision to spurn an historic pact with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Ukraine's old masters in the Kremlin culminated in days of carnage last week in Kiev that claimed almost 100 lives.

Russia reacted with outrage to the "mutiny" in a country with centuries-old roots to Moscow, and which President Vladimir Putin views as an integral part of an economic -- and possibly even military -- alliance to counterweight the EU and NATO blocs.
But Western powers have been cautiously throwing their weight behind the overthrow of a democratically elected leader by parliamentary action whose constitutional legitimacy remains open to debate.
Ukraine's new leaders hit the ground running today by holding Yanukovych and about 50 other senior state and security officials responsible for the protesters' deaths.

"A criminal case has been launched over the mass murder of peaceful civilians. Yanukovych and a number of other officials have been put on a wanted list," acting interior minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement.

Avakov said Yanukovych had tried to flee the country Saturday out of the eastern city of Donetsk -- his political power base and bastion of pro-Russian support -- before escaping to Crimea with a team of guards and a cache of weapons the next day.
He said the deposed head of state and his powerful administration chief Andriy Klyuev had since "travelled by three cars into an unknown direction, having first switched off their modes of communication".
Ukraine has been reeling from both political and financial crises that have seen the nation of 46 million face the threat of splintering between its pro-Western and more Russified regions and having to declare a devastating default.