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New Ukraine Leader Yatseniuk Says Ousted Government Stole $70B

<p>The head of Ukraine's new unity government accuses ousted President Yanukovych's administration of looting $70 billion from state coffers.</p><p></p>
New Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk accuses ousted government of looting state coffers of $70 billion.
New Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk accuses ousted government of looting state coffers of $70 billion. Yatseniuk was appointed on Thursday by the parliament in Kiev to head a government of national unity.Konstantin Chernichkin / Reuters
/ Source: Reuters
New Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk accuses ousted government of looting state coffers of $70 billion.
New Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk accuses ousted government of looting state coffers of $70 billion. Yatseniuk was appointed by the parliament in Kiev to head a government of national unity.Konstantin Chernichkin / Reuters

Ukraine's new prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk accused the government of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych of stripping state coffers bare and said $37 billion of credit it received had disappeared.

Speaking to parliament in Kiev on Thursday, before he was appointed head of a national unity government, Yatseniuk said that in the past three years "the sum of $70 billion was paid out of Ukraine's financial system into off-shore accounts.

"I want to report to you - the state treasury has been robbed and is empty," he said. "$37 billion of credit received has disappeared in an unknown direction," he added. The situation was so grave that there was no other alternative but to take "extraordinarily unpopular measures," Yatseniuk said.

- Reuters