Ukraine's deposed President Viktor Yanukovych said today that Russia's annexation of Crimea is "a tragedy" and that it was "wrong" to invite Russian troops into Crimea.
"Crimea is a tragedy, a major tragedy," Yanukovych told the Associated Press news agency and Russia’s NTV, in his first interview since he fled Ukraine in February.
Yanukovych insisted that Russia's takeover of Crimea wouldn't have happened if he had stayed in power.
In late November last year Yanukovych refused to sign a political association agreement and free trade pact with the EU in Vilnius, hours before the summit. He instead opted to accept a €15 billion bailout from Moscow which had for months pressured Ukraine to join its rival customs union.
He fled Ukraine after three months of anti-government protests against his rule.
"We must set such a task and search for ways to return to Crimea on any conditions, so that Crimea may have the maximum degree of independence possible ... but be part of Ukraine," he now says.
Yanukovych added that he and Putin had a "calm" but "difficult" conversation.
He said the Crimean referendum that was held just two weeks after Russian troops overran the peninsula — in which residents overwhelmingly voted to join Russia — was a response to threats posed by radical nationalists in Ukraine.
Yanukovych had pushed for local referendums that would allow parts of Ukraine to determine their own local government structures. He argued that should have been followed by a constitutional reform, and only after that should Ukraine have a national election.