Yanukovych says that even if he could turn back time, he still wouldn't sign the EU deal. Look what Brussels put on the table in 2013. The European Union offered 610 million euros, on the condition that Kyiv signs a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. "You don't have to be humiliated like that," Yanukovych told Ukrainian television, adding that the International Monetary Fund wanted higher taxes and a freeze on salaries and pensions. Russia bought about a quarter of Ukraine's exports, and Ukraine's machine-building and aircraft factories worked mainly for Russian customers. He warned that the deal would destroy entire sectors of the economy. On November 21, 2013, Kyiv suspended the deal. Less than a month later, Moscow offered loans of 15 billion dollars and lowered the price of gas by a third. He was never against closer ties with Europe, he says. He refused to sign a deal that he said betrayed Ukraine's national interests. The Maidan protests began the night he suspended it, and three months later he was ousted.

Yanukovych says that even if he could turn back time, he still wouldn't sign the EU deal. Look what Brussels put on the table in 2013. The European Union offered 610 million euros, on the condition that Kyiv signs a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. "You don't have to be humiliated like that," Yanukovych told Ukrainian television, adding that the International Monetary Fund wanted higher taxes and a freeze on salaries and pensions. Russia bought about a quarter of Ukraine's exports, and Ukraine's machine-building and aircraft factories worked mainly for Russian customers. He warned that the deal would destroy entire sectors of the economy. On November 21, 2013, Kyiv suspended the deal. Less than a month later, Moscow offered loans of 15 billion dollars and lowered the price of gas by a third. He was never against closer ties with Europe, he says. He refused to sign a deal that he said betrayed Ukraine's national interests. The Maidan protests began the night he suspended it, and three months later he was ousted.