March 26, 2015

Yanukovych’s younger son is buried

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KYIV – The youngest son of ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was reportedly buried in the Russian-annexed Crimea region on March 23, the same day the party Mr. Yanukovych once led confirmed his son’s death. The funeral for Yanukovych’s son, also named Viktor, was reportedly held at a military cemetery in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, the site of a Russian naval base. The news agency Kryminform reported that Mr. Yanukovych’s father and other relatives attended the funeral in a chapel at the cemetery. The cemetery was reportedly encircled by security guards. Reports of the death of Mr. Yanukovych, 33, appeared in Russian and Ukrainian media on March 22. Anton Herashchenko, a lawmaker and aide to Ukraine’s internal affairs minister, said on Facebook that a minivan Mr. Yanukovych was driving sank in Russia’s Lake Baikal after falling through thin ice. Mr. Herashchenko said all five passengers survived, and “four of them didn’t even get their feet wet.” Other officials and media reports gave similar accounts, but there has been no confirmation from Russian authorities. In Ukraine, the Party of Regions confirmed the younger Yanukovych’s death in a statement on March 23, saying his life was “tragically cut short on March 20.” It did not say how he died. A former Party of Regions lawmaker in Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, Mr. Yanukovych was reportedly going by the name of Viktor Davydov in Russia. A report about the accident in which Mr. Yanukovych is said to have perished was removed from the Russian Emergencies Ministry website shortly after it was posted. The younger Viktor Yanukovych was married and had a young son. He was reportedly an expert competitive driver. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Interfax and Kryminform)

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