Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said his decision to leave the country in 2014 was caused by the wish to prevent a civil war.

"I made the decision [to leave Ukraine] and only then I addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin and told him that I have made the decision to leave the territory of Ukraine, because I think that this is very dangerous not from the point of view of my life, but from the point of view of the life of Ukrainians," Yanukovych said during an interrogation at Kyiv's Sviatoshynsky District Court in videoconference mode from the Rostov Regional Court on Monday.

He believes that if he had remained in the country, this would have led to a civil war on the whole territory of Ukraine.

"A war such as that in Donbas would have started throughout Ukraine if I had stayed there," the former president said.