Viktor Yanukovych Minister. In November 2009 Yanukovych stated that he conceded defeat only to avoid violence. "I didn't want mothers to lose their children and wives their husbands. I didn't want dead bodies from Kyiv to flow down the Dnipro. I didn't want to assume power through bloodshed." Following his electoral defeat in 2004, Yanukovych led the main opposition party against the Tymoshenko government made up of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and Oleksandr Moroz's Socialist Party. This government was marred by growing conflict between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. Yanukovych's Party of Regions support allowed for the establishment of Yuriy Yekhanurov's
Yuriy Ilyin Yuriy Ilyin Yuriy Ivanovych Ilyin (born 21 August 1962) is a Ukrainian Admiral and former Commander of the Ukrainian Navy. He was elevated to the position of Chief of the General Staff by President Viktor Yanukovych on 19 February 2014 after the existing chief, Colonel General Volodymyr Zamana, was dismissed by the President during the February 2014 Euromaidan riots. After an admission to hospital following a heart attack on 27 February 2014, Ilyin was dismissed from the post of Chief of the General Staff by interim President Alexander Turchynov on 28 February 2014. Ilyin was born in Rogachev City, now