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'Mass Killing' Arrest Warrant Issued for Ukraine's Yanukovych

<p>Yanukovych reportedly relinquished his official security detail on Sunday and then drove off to an unknown location.</p>

Ukraine's acting interior minister issued an arrest warrant for embattled President Viktor Yanukovych, the Associated Press reported Monday.

The warrant issued for Yanukovych and several other officials was for the "mass killing of civilians," Interior Minister Arsen Avakhov said on his official Facebook page.

“I report to Ukrainian people: Yanukovych is missing,” Avakhov said.

Yanukovych arrived in the Russian stronghold of Crimea on Sunday and relinquished his official security detail in a handwritten note before driving off to an unknown location, according to Avakhov. A few officers remained loyal to Yanukovych, however, and left with him after relinquishing their state-issued weapons, the interior minister added.

The country's parliament has been passing new laws since Yanukovych left the capital after signing a deal Friday with protesters who demanded early elections and that he step down.

On Saturday, a charter plane carrying Yanukovych was blocked from taking off in the eastern city of Donetsk.

Three months of protests against Yanukovych, who had turned away from closer ties with Europe and towards Vladimir Putin's Russia, burst into deadly violence last week.

More than 80 people were killed in battles with police.