Ousted Ukraine president convicted treason

KIEV - A court in Kiev on Thursday found ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych guilty of high treason and complicity in conducting an "aggressive war against Ukraine by Russia," local media reported.

Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in 2014, was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison by the Obolon district court.

The prosecutors brought treason charges against Yanukovych after he asked Russia to send troops to Ukraine in 2014.

The former president, however, was acquitted of the charge of complicity in encroachment on Ukraine's territorial integrity that led to the death of people.

Yanukovych's lawyer Olexandr Goroshynsky said that he would challenge the ruling in higher courts.

Yanukovych became president in February 2010.

In February 2014, the parliament voted to dismiss Yanukovych from his post, declaring him "constitutionally unable to carry out his duties" after Yanukovych left Kiev, following months of street protests over his refusal to sign an association agreement with the European Union.

In March 2014, then-ambassador of Russia to UN Vitaly Churkin showed a copy of the letter to the members of the UN Security Council, in which Yanukovych had requested Russia to use its armed forces to "re-establish the rule of law, peace, order and stability" in Ukraine.