Yanukovych calls on politicians to unite

The Party of Regions' leader also called for "giving over to historians the events in Ukraine since the end of 2004 until now," and "instead of staging political battles, to fight with the crisis."

Political battles, Yanukovych says, are "inopportune in conditions when Ukraine is dragging behind the majority of the so-called post-Soviet countries by the level of social and economic development."