Arrest warrant for Ukraine’s fugitive leader

Ukraine issued an arrest warrant yesterday for its ousted pro-Russian president over “mass murder” and appealed for $35bn (€25bn) in Western aid as Moscow denounced Kiev’s new reformist interim government as “Kalashnikov-toting people in black masks.”

The dramatic announcements by the Western-leaning ministers — approved by parliament over a chaotic weekend that saw president Viktor Yanukovych go into hiding — came as the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton arrived in Kiev to buttress Ukraine’s sudden tilt away from Russia.

Ukraine’s new leaders yesterday held Yanukovych and about 50 other senior state and security officials responsible for the protesters’ deaths.