$37 billion disappeared under Yanukovich rule: Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Ukraine's new prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Thursday accused the government of ousted President Viktor Yanukovich of stripping state coffers bare and said $37 billion of credit it had received had disappeared.

Speaking in parliament before he was appointed head of a national unity government, Arseniy Yatsenyuk 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 have disappeared in an unknown direction," he added. 

The situation was so grave that there was no other alternative but to take "extraordinarily unpopular measures," he said.