The bodyguards of two close allies of Ukraine's ousted leader Viktor Yanukovych fired on border guards when they were blocked from trying to escape the country, an official said Sunday.
Several Yanukovych allies have reportedly attempted to flee -- as the former president did too -- or defected over the past days as deadly clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters in Kiev sparked a series of rapid-fire political changes that saw parliament come under opposition control.
Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and tax chief Oleksandr Klimenko, both of who belonged to Yaunkovych's so-called "Family" of close-knit political and financial allies, were blocked from going "abroad" at the Donetsk airport, Oleg Makhnytsky, interim prosecutor general, told parliament.
They were only able to get away Saturday when their bodyguards shot at border guards, he said.
"Measures have been taken to arrest Pshonka and Klimenko and initiate legal proceedings against them," Makhnytsky said.
Ousted interior minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko and other ministers were also reportedly seen at the same airport, he added.
Yanukovych himself, shortly after denouncing a "coup" on local television and denying he had resigned, reportedly tried to leave Donetsk abroad a private plane Saturday.
Border service spokesman Sergiy Astahov told AFP the ousted president's aides tried to bribe border police to let him go, but they refused and he then left the airport.
