Viktor Yanukovych Donetsk during 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, when he referred to the electorate of his opponent Viktor Yushchenko as "goats that make our lives difficult" ("эти козлы, которые нам мешают жить"). Later, during the TV debates with Yushchenko he explained, "I called goats the traitors. According to the Bible, the goat is a traitor, and there are also rams, sheep." After his February 2014 escape to Russia, during his 28 February press-conference in Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovych said, "Ukraine is our strategic partner" (misspeaking and confusing Ukraine with Russia). During the same press-conference he also broke a pen in an emotional outburst, while
2014 Ukrainian revolution although the members of the Alpha team are Ukrainian citizens. On 21 February, President Yanukovych and Parliament declared 22 and 23 February to be days of mourning "due to the loss of human life as a result of mass disturbances". Speaker Rybak submitted his resignation in parliament on February 22, citing illness. Yanukovych's whereabouts were unknown, despite media reports that he had flown to Kharkiv (according to the governor of Kharkiv Oblast at the time, Mykhailo Dobkin, Yanukovych was in Kharkiv that day). Oleksandr Turchynov said that most of the ministers had disappeared, including Interior Minister Zakharchenko, who was reported