Opposition leaders sign deal with Yanukovych to end Ukraine crisis
Opposition leaders sign deal with Yanukovych to end Ukraine crisis
(about 5 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — A deal designed to end Ukraine’s long-running crisis was signed Friday afternoon by President Viktor Yanukovych and the three leaders of the political opposition, but the accord appeared likely to be a hard sell among the thousands of demonstrators who have sustained months of protest.
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine pulled back from the brink of chaos Friday when President Viktor Yanukovych signed a deal with opposition leaders to dilute his powers, form a caretaker government and hold early elections. But the accord appeared likely to be a hard sell among the thousands of demonstrators who vowed that nothing short of his ouster would get them off the streets.
The pact, reached after Ukraine’s bloodiest week of street fighting after all-night negotiations sponsored by European and Russian officials, calls for an immediate return to the 2004 constitution, which gives the parliament, not the president, the right to choose a prime minister and most of the cabinet.
The agreement represents a remarkable, humiliating fall for Yanukovych, whose decision to turn away from closer ties with the European Union and toward Russia sparked protests that began here peacefully in November but turned increasingly violent.
The Ukrainian parliament later voted to remove the interior minister, who was blamed for this week’s violence against protesters, news agencies reported. The ministry controls the nation’s riot police.
The atmosphere remained tense late Friday in Independence Square, the epicenter of the protests. When one of the opposition leaders, former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, told the crowds this was the best deal they could get, one of the protesters grabbed the microphone and demanded that Yanukovych resign Saturday morning or face the wrath of the people.
In another move that sparked a roar of approval from protesters barricaded in the center of Kiev, the lawmakers also approved, by a veto-proof margin, a change in Ukrainian law that could lead to the release of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
“We will go with weapons,” said the protester, who leads one of the more militant groups in the square. “I swear it.”
[WATCH: Live video from Kiev’s Independence Square]
The pact, reached after Ukraine’s bloodiest week of street fighting, following all-night negotiations sponsored by European and Russian officials, calls for an immediate return to the 2004 constitution, which gives the parliament, not the president, the right to choose a prime minister and most of the cabinet.
The accord also called for authorities and the opposition to refrain from violence and withdraw from public spaces, and to return the country to normal life. Protesters were to turn illegal weapons over to police.
[WATCH: Live video from Independence Square]
In a move that sparked a roar of approval from protesters barricaded in Independence Square, the Ukrainian parliament approved, by a veto-proof margin, a change in the law that could lead to the quick release of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
Tymoshenko, a former two-term prime minister and a founder of the largest opposition party here, was sentenced to seven years in prison in August 2011 for embezzlement and abuse of power over a deal to purchase natural gas from Russia. Her supporters have called her trial and conviction politically motivated.
Tymoshenko, a former two-term prime minister and a founder of the largest opposition party here, was sentenced to seven years in prison in August 2011 for embezzlement and abuse of power over a deal to purchase natural gas from Russia. Her supporters have called her trial and conviction politically motivated.
In Washington, the White House welcomed the agreement, saying in a statement that it was “consistent with what we have advocated in calling for a de-escalation of the violence, constitutional change, a coalition government, and early elections.”
In a rush to stem the violence, the Ukrainian parliament also sacked the interior minister, citing his “systemic and gross violation” of Ukraine’s constitution for his orders to allow police to fire live rounds at protesters.
A transition government is to be installed within 10 days, and a referendum on a new constitution is to be held in September under the deal.
The ousted minister, Vitaliy Zakharchenko, who controls the nation’s riot police, said security forces who shot and killed protesters were acting within the law and protecting retreating, unarmed police.
But the big sticking point is the presidency: early elections are to be held, but not until December, and protesters on the Maidan, the opposition stronghold known officially as Independence Square, said Friday that such an arrangement was not acceptable. They have promised not to leave the square until Yanukovych leaves the presidency.
“When an outrage is committed in the state and when attacks on the people and looting are spreading, when people don’t know what to expect further, it is the people in uniform’s duty to protect their citizens,” Zakharchenko said, before his removal.
“I think people are preparing for the worst, for more to come,” said Sergiy, a geography teacher from Lviv who is volunteering as a medic in a makeshift triage center at the October Palace, and who like others interviewed Friday refused to give his last name.
Several Ukrainian outlets reported late Friday that Yanukovich had fled Kiev, the capital. In Washington, a senior State Department official said the president is believed to have traveled to Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, for meetings. The official said that after major announcements or developments “it’s not unusual for him to go to the East, where his base is.”
The deal between the opposition and Yanukovych calls for presidential elections no later than December, instead of March 2015 as scheduled. Many protesters say December is too late — they want Yanukovych to resign immediately, and then face charges.
“I think people are preparing for the worst, for more to come,” said Sergiy, a geography teacher from Lviv who is volunteering as a medic in a makeshift triage center at the October Palace, and who like others interviewed Friday declined to give his last name.
Sergiy said that Yanukovych cannot be trusted to hold elections in 10 months and would use the time to fortify his position and surround himself with cronies. The teacher said he also feared that opposition leaders were too ready to make a deal.
Sergiy said that Yanukovych cannot be trusted to hold elections in 10 months and would use the time to fortify his position and surround himself with cronies. The teacher said he also feared that opposition leaders were too ready to make a deal.
“We’re afraid the politicians -- from both sides, yes, from the opposition, too -- will cheat us again,” Sergiy said.
“We’re afraid the politicians — from both sides, yes, from the opposition, too — will cheat us again,” Sergiy said.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, head of the opposition Fatherland party, tweeted before the signing that the deal must be approved “on the Maidan” and would not take effect until that happens.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, head of the opposition Fatherland party, tweeted before the signing that the deal must be approved “on the Maidan,” as Independence Square is called, and would not take effect until that happens.
But he told members of parliament: “We must now take power. I do not know how much we can take, but we must do it.”
[READ: A look at the key players in the protests and deal]
[READ: Here are the major players in the deal and the protests]
Protesters and mourners swelled into Independence Square on Friday to pray, sing hymns and the national anthem and pass from hand to hand the coffins of some of the protesters killed Thursday.
Shots were reported at the Maidan protest site Friday morning; the Interior Ministry said they came from the protesters’ side. The city was jittery a day after the bloodiest clashes so far in the three-month political crisis. The death toll from Thursday’s violence was reported to be 75.
The total death toll from clashes reached 77, the Health Ministry said Friday, with 379 others hospitalized.
In welcoming the agreement, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the United States is offering support in implementing it.
The violence and bloodshed clearly weighed on protesters’ minds. “After the first shots were fired at us, that was it. Yanukovych is no longer our legitimate president. We’re here until he is gone,” said a mechanic who gave his name only as Vladimir.
“Now, the focus must be on concrete action to implement this agreement, which we will be monitoring closely,” he said. “In this regard, we call for immediate implementation of the initial steps — an end to the violence, amnesty and security normalization, and passage of the constitutional package in the Rada [Ukrainian parliament] — to provide space for the negotiations to begin on formation of a technocratic coalition government.”
His head was tightly bandaged from a bullet he said was fired at him by government snipers on Thursday. A friend, Dmitriy, said that “Yanukovych belongs in court, not in the president’s office.”
Carney added: “Respect for the right of peaceful protest — including on the Maidan — is essential. As we have said, there must be accountability for those responsible for the violence and the casualties that have resulted since the crisis began, and we remain prepared to impose additional sanctions as necessary.”
The Rada parliament building is no longer being guarded by the Berkut, a special police force in Kiev.
In Kiev, the violence and bloodshed clearly weighed on protesters’ minds as they considered the political negotiations.
“After the first shots were fired at us, that was it. Yanukovych is no longer our legitimate president. We’re here until he is gone,” said a mechanic who gave his name only as Vladimir.
His head was tightly bandaged from a bullet he said was fired at him by government snipers on Thursday. A friend, Dmitriy, said, “Yanukovich belongs in court, not in the president’s office.”
A key player in the talks could turn out to be Vladimir Lukin, dispatched from Moscow Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Until now, Russia’s lobbying of Ukraine has been so aggressive that Europeans have characterized it as bullying. But Lukin is a respected low-key figure, and his appointment seemed to signal a change in the Kremlin’s tone.
Yet Lukin flew back to Moscow before the signing. The Kremlin later said it was suspending its $15 billion aid program to Ukraine, signed after Yanukovych spurned a trade deal with the European Union in November.
Putin has tried to bind Ukraine and Yanukovych to Russia with economic ties and to stymie closer relations between Kiev and the European Union. But Russian analysts said Thursday that the Ukrainian president has shown he cannot defeat the opposition and that the past two days of street fighting, coupled with defiance throughout western Ukraine, have exposed his weakness. If that thinking now extends to the Kremlin, Putin might try to cut the best deal he can.
Ukraine’s parliament, which turned against Yanukovych late Thursday and voted for a resolution calling on the police to withdraw from the environs of the Maidan, convened again Friday morning.
Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, says that elected officials who are not working toward a political solution are part of the growing problem in Kiev.
Thursday’s resolution is likely to be challenged on the grounds that there wasn’t a proper quorum, because many of Yanukovych’s remaining loyalists stayed away. Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, released a video statement in which he said that members who were absent were part of the problem — not, as the saying goes, part of the solution.
Early Friday morning, Petro Poroshenko, an oligarch who unequivocally supports the protests, arranged for a busload of captured troops to be released by the opposition. The crowd on the Maidan brought the bus to a halt, and Poroshenko exhorted them to let it through. Earlier, the hard-line demonstrators who took several dozen hostages had said they would be released when the police pulled back from the areas surrounding the Maidan.
The Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that it had issued combat-level weapons to police officers and suggested that they had the right to use them to recover their captured comrades. By early Friday, there had been no general assault on the protesters’ position.
At a meeting in Brussels, European Union leaders agreed on targeted sanctions against Ukrainian officials, one day after the United States revoked visas for 20 unidentified officials. In Washington, a White House statement Thursday on the violence in Ukraine was unusually stern.
“We are outraged by the images of Ukrainian security forces firing automatic weapons on their own people,” it said. “We urge President Yanukovych to immediately withdraw his security forces from downtown Kyiv and to respect the right of peaceful protest, and we urge protesters to express themselves peacefully.”
It called on the Ukrainian military not to take part in the conflict because “the use of force will not resolve the crisis.”
Late in the day, Vice President Biden called Yanukovych. He condemned the violence against civilians in Kiev, according to a White House statement, and called on Yanukovych to pull back police, snipers, military and paramilitary units and irregular forces. The United States, he said, is prepared to sanction those officials responsible for the violence.
Yanukovych met first with the foreign ministers of Poland, France and Germany. The meeting, held away from the presidential office building, lasted four hours. Then, as Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland put it, the ministers went to “test a proposed agreement” with the heads of the three main political parties opposing Yanukovych.
Afterward, as the evening grew late, the three ministers returned to the presidential offices and met with Yanukovych again. They decided to spend the night in Kiev and resume their talks Friday.
UDAR leader Vitali Klitschko and the two other main opposition leaders, Yatsenyuk of the Fatherland party and Oleh Tiahnybok of the nationalist Svoboda party, joined the talks overnight, as did Lukin.
Word of Yanukovych’s stated willingness to consider early elections was first reported by the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, in Warsaw. He said part of the plan was the formation of a transitional government within 10 days and the adoption of a new constitution by summer. The next scheduled presidential election would be in 2015 and the next parliamentary elections in 2017.
The Post's Will Englund gives a first-person account of what it's like on the ground for protesters and citizens in Kiev. (The Washington Post)
The Post's Will Englund gives a first-person account of what it's like on the ground for protesters and citizens in Kiev. (The Washington Post)
As Thursday’s violence slackened in the afternoon, the Maidan demonstrators returned to their routines. But there was deep dismay over the bloodshed. Hotel lobbies were turned into emergency rooms and morgues. Soot-stained, exhausted protesters tended to the wounded, said farewell to the dead, assiduously dug up more paving stones for use as missiles and showed no signs of debilitating fear.
President Obama spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than an hour, their first extensive conversation in months. Most of the discussion was about Ukraine, a senior State Department official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomacy, said the discussion was constructive and forward-looking.
Medics said it was clear that a number of those killed had been targeted by snipers. At least two were older than 50, according to a partial list of victims. Videos showed police using automatic weapons, and at least one protester was photographed aiming a rifle. Molotov cocktails were employed, as they had been previously.
Also Friday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry spoke with three of the main Ukrainian opposition leaders to congratulate what the official called “courage and leadership” in helping reach agreement with the Yanukovych government. Klitschko was invited to join the telephone call with Kerry, the official said, but remained among opposition supporters on Independence Square instead.
At one tent on the Maidan, volunteers had collected hundreds of bottles, as if on a recycling drive. But they were to be filled with gasoline for use as weapons.
“This is a very, very fragile agreement,” despite the progress, and emotion remains high among opposition supporters, the U.S. official said.
“A horrible tragedy has been happening on the streets in Kiev and other cities of Ukraine,” Valeria Lutkovska, human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian parliament, said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
One of the lead European negotiators, Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, said, “this is the best agreement we could have and it gives Ukraine a chance to return to peace, to reform, and hopefully to resume its way towards Europe.”
William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.
In less diplomatic language, Sikorski was caught telling an opposition leader to take the deal, warning “if you don't support this, you'll have martial law, the army. You will all be dead," in remarks captured by ITV News.
Situation ‘quite fluid’
It is unclear what role the Russians played. Putin dispatched human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin from Moscow on Thursday. Until now, Russia’s lobbying of Ukraine has been so aggressive that Europeans have characterized it as bullying. But Lukin is a respected, low-key figure, and his appointment seemed to signal a change in the Kremlin’s tone.
Yet Lukin flew back to Moscow before the signing. The Kremlin later said it was suspending its $15 billion aid program to Ukraine, signed after Yanukovych spurned a trade pact with the European Union in November.
“There is a chance of achieving peace in Ukraine. People are working on it,” Lukin said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. “But the situation there is very complicated and quite fluid, people you have to talk to are coming and going. The conversation will continue, including with our partners in Europe.”
Leonid Slutsky, a Russian legislator who oversees relations with ex-Soviet states, told reporters Friday the deal is “entirely in the interests of the United States and other powers, who want to split Ukraine from Russia,” according to the Associated Press.
Yanukovych announced via his website that Saturday and Sunday would be national days of mourning for the dead.
In a sign of the new power-sharing relationship, the same decree was announced by parliament.
Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.
