Disgraced former President Victor Yanukovych called for urgent action to resolve the ongoing separatist violence in eastern Ukraine in a statement from Rostov-on-Don on April 21. Yanukovych requested the “immediate removal of all Ukrainian Armed Forces from the east of Ukraine, sent there as a detachment of the so-called ‘national guard,’ dressed in military uniforms and armed with automatic weapons and grenades.” Yanukovych, who fled Ukraine on February 22 after being accused of ordering riot police to fire on activists demanding his removal from power, called for “the immediate commencement of peaceful dialogue with the leaders of the eastern regions.”