DHAKA: Fugitive Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, ousted after bloody street protests in which demonstrators were shot by police snipers, is wanted for mass murder.

Authorities announced on Monday, reports The Straits Times.

As rival neighbours east and west of the former Soviet republic said a power vacuum in Kiev must not lead to the country breaking apart, acting president Oleksander Turchinov said Ukraine’s new leaders wanted relations with Russia on a ‘new, equal and good-neighbourly footing that recognises and takes into account Ukraine’s European choice’.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will travel to Ukraine on Monday, where she is expected to discuss measures to shore up the ailing economy, which the finance ministry said required US$35 billion in foreign aid over the next two years, with the first tranche needed within two weeks.

Yanukovych, who vanished on Saturday, is still at large.

BDST: 1546 HRS, FEB 24, 2014