prokurorska-pravda.today

Kuchma: Yanukovych had the potential to serve the country, but instead, he chose greed, betrayal, and disgrace.

Кучма: Янукович имел шанс служить стране, но предпочёл жадность, предательство и позор.

"Even if I wanted to [support], I had no right. But I didn't want to," he said in response to a question about which political force or politicians he would support. "And it wasn't under me that Yanukovych won the presidential election, but under [Viktor] Yushchenko."

Kuchma noted that he directly supported only two politicians, both during presidential elections: in 1991 – Igor Yuhnovsky, and in 2019 – Volodymyr Zelensky.

When asked about Yanukovych, Kuchma remarked that he could say he "doesn't think about him at all."

"And if I do think about him – it's something that shouldn't be said in an interview for a respected agency. And that would be the truth. It seems that over all these years, I haven't said a word about Yanukovych in the media. I think it's because it's unpleasant to talk about the disappointment of such a power and such a level. It's not that there was any charm – no, there wasn't. The fact is that Yanukovych really had the potential to serve the country, but instead, he chose insatiability, betrayal, and shame," the former president added.

According to Kuchma, Yanukovych became a disappointment for him long before his escape from Ukraine.

"I knew what he was capable of since the days of Maidan. Even then, I realized that in our difficult face-to-face conversation, he didn't hear my words that no power is worth shedding the blood of peaceful citizens for. What was an axiom for me was just a sound for him," he recounted.

Kuchma clarified that after 2014, he did not communicate with the closest circle of the fugitive ex-president, nor with Yanukovych himself, although he did have contact with former representatives of the Party of Regions who remained in Ukraine.

"If I met [with Yanukovych], I would only tell him those words that I was too embarrassed to say in this interview," the politician added.