Viktor Yanukovych the sister of his former cook of the Mezhyhirya Residence. Polezhay also lived in the Mezhyhirya Residence and left Ukraine with Yanukovych in 2014. "Ukrayinska Pravda" claims that during Yanukovych presidency his wife Lyudmyla lived separately in Donetsk. After the start of the War in Donbass she reportedly moved to Crimea. In March 2012, Yanukovych stated it was "a problem" for him in 2002 to speak Ukrainian but that "once I had the opportunity to speak Ukrainian, I started to do it with pleasure". Until 2004, Yanukovych was known as "batia" ("Dad") among his family members, but since that time
Viktor Yanukovych the transitional government went to representatives of the right-wing extremist nationalist group Svoboda, condemned by the EU in 2012 (see Svoboda Party). Unlike his 28 February press conference, Yanukovych did not take questions from reporters. On 28 March 2014, Yanukovych asked the Party of Regions to exclude him. He was excluded on 29 March during a party congress along with several senior figures of his régime. On 13 April, Yanukovych again gave a press conference in Rostov-on-Don, this time accompanied by former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and former interior minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko. On 13 June 2014, Yanukovych released a video