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Press TV has conducted an interview with Christopher Walker, former correspondent of The Times, London, about the crisis in Ukraine where President Yanukovych is in hiding and Tymoshenko has reemerged.

- How do you assess the situation as it stands right now in Ukraine? Are things looking positive do you think?

- No I think they’re very critical at the moment. The next few days will tell because we still don’t know what’s going to happen and what has happened to the semi-deposed president.

He has gone into hiding it appears in the east of the country, which is very pro-Russian and pro-him (Viktor Yanukovych) and he said basically he is not giving up.

Now... that could be just defiant language or there could be something planned and that is the crucial question.

At the moment we’re in the phony war period, an uneasy calm. But anything could happen because he hasn’t been fully deposed, he hasn’t left the country like what happened in some of the countries in the Arab world; and he hasn’t been murdered like (Nicolae) Ceausescu was in Romania.

So, “watch this space” really, almost every hour could count.

- What does this say do you think about Ukrainian democracy going forward that an elected leader was deposed - by parliament that is? What does it say going forward about the structure of democracy in the country do you think?

- Well, it’s still very much in an embryonic stage.

There are plenty of people including leading commentators in the British press today who claim it’s illegal to overthrow this man who was, don’t forget, elected by a fair majority -- some four percent over Yulia Tymoshenko at the last elections.

Now suddenly she has reappeared. It is very open to question about how this will work because the country is divided.

If there wasn’t this split along the river Dnipro between the Russian-speaking east and the Westward- looking west wanting EU backing, it wouldn’t be quite a serious split. But it is.

There is always the question or the possible answer that the country will split like Czechoslovakia did after the collapse of communism there.

- And do you have any hope going forward that the likes of Tymoshenko or maybe others will maybe get over that split in the country?

- Maybe. It’s going to be difficult.

President Putin in Moscow is not going to be over-pleased if there is any effort to undo Russia’s influence.

And you may have noticed that actually one or two of the towns and cities in the east have already said that they’re breaking away and they’re not going to take any order as it were from the central government in Kiev.