Ukraine's ex-president Viktor Yanukovych said he did not order law enforcement officials to use force on protesters on Kyiv's Maidan in 2013-2014.

While being questioned as a witness in a court hearing of the former Berkut riot police members case, Yanukovych said, responding to a question from the affected party as to whether he ordered law enforcement officials to use riot control weapons during protests in the period between November 30, 2013 and February 18, 2014: "I was against the use of weapons and against bloodshed from the very beginning until the very end. It was my committed position."

"I could not have issued such orders," he said.

"As for the weapons that were on Maidan, they came from various sources. First of all, they included people's own weapons such as hunting rifles. Secondly, there were weapons seized from the Ukrainian Security Service and local police facilities," he said during the video questioning, when asked what he knew about the Maidan protestors' armament.

Some types of foreign-made weapons were marked, he said.

"I have no evidence of these [weapons] having been specifically imported to Ukraine," he said, adding that he was talking mainly about sniper rifles.

He also told the court that fire against Maidan protestors came from opposition-controlled buildings.

"I was told that fire was being delivered from buildings controlled by the opposition, I had no one to instruct to cease fire from these buildings. This is why the law enforcement bodies were operating on their own," Yanukovych said.

When asked how he knew that fire had been delivered from opposition-controlled buildings, Yanukovych said: "This information effectively came from the media, from the reporters' comments. This could be watched online on all channels."

"I said just one thing to law enforcement chiefs: everything needs to be done to stop this," the ex-president said.