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
History of Ukraine the Ukrainian parliament on 22 February voted to remove Yanukovych from power (on the grounds that his whereabouts were unknown and he thus could not fulfil his duties), and to free Yulia Tymoshenko from prison. The same day Yanukovych supporter Volodymyr Rybak resigned as speaker of the Parliament, and was replaced by Tymoshenko loyalist Oleksandr Turchynov, who was subsequently installed as interim President. Yanukovych had fled Kiev, and subsequently gave a press conference in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. In March 2014, the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation resulted in Crimea being annexed by Russia. Though official results