The son of Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych drowned after the van he was driving fell through the ice on a Siberian lake at the weekend, according to reports.



Yanukovych’s son, also called Viktor, was known for his love of extreme sports and was also an MP in Ukraine’s parliament, before the family fled to Russia in the wake of the Maidan revolution last year.

Russian authorities said only that a man named Viktor Davydov had died when a Volkswagen van fell through the ice on Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake. Davydov is his maternal grandmother’s name.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he had no information to give, and there was no official confirmation that the dead man was indeed Yanukovych. However, several sources close to Yanukovych Sr’s former Party of Regions confirmed the death.

Five passengers who were inside the van at the time it sank managed to escape, according to reports. It was unclear whether the vehicle had veered off from the road, or whether Yanukovych had been taking part in a rally race across the ice.

Viktor Yanukovych Sr fled Kiev with his family during the Maidan revolution, loading lorries with tonnes of gold, cash and other valuables from his massive estate outside the capital. Protesters later looked in awe upon the palatial residence and vast grounds of the former president, turning it into a kind of corruption theme park where families go for a day out.

Putin recently described how Russian forces had launched an operation to extract Yanukovych from Ukraine by “land, sea and air” after fears that protesters could “destroy” him.

Yanukovych eventually arrived in Russia, and his requests formed the pretext for Russia to intervene in Crimea. Realising that he commanded little respect even among his former supporters, Russia had little further use for Yanukovych, and his public appearances became rarer.

The president had two sons. The older of them, Alexander, became one of Ukraine’s richest people under his father’s rule, controlling a major business conglomerate in Donetsk, the power base of the Yanukovych clan, which has since become the capital for Russia-backed separatists.

Viktor Yanukovych Jr became an MP after the 2012 parliamentary elections and helped pass a law giving favourable status to the Russian language in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian television channel claimed Yanukovych would be buried in Crimea on Monday, though this could not be confirmed.