FILE - In this March 2, 2018 file photo, former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych gestures as he speaks at a news conference in Moscow. A court in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday Jan. 24, 2019, has found former president Viktor Yanukovych guilty of treason. (Pavel Golovkin, File/Associated Press)

MINSK, Belarus — A court in the Ukrainian capital Kiev has found former President Viktor Yanukovych guilty of treason.
Yanukovych fled Ukraine in 2014 as tensions in Kiev flared up following a deadly police crackdown on protesters calling for the president to follow through with an association agreement with the European Union. Yanukovych, who eventually surfaced in Russia and was tried in absentia, faced charges of treason, along with complicity in a war against Ukraine and premeditated actions to alter Ukraine’s borders.
The Kiev court on Thursday declared Yanukovych guilty of treason, and it will rule later on the other charges.
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.