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Ukraine’s parliament votes to oust president; former prime minister is freed from jail Ukraine’s parliament votes to oust president; former prime minister is freed from jail
(about 4 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — In a day of fast-moving events that changed the political landscape of Ukraine and brought joy to protesters who had defied the government, the Ukrainian parliament voted Saturday evening to dismiss President Viktor Yanukovych from office, saying he was guilty of gross human rights violations and dereliction of duty. KIEV, Ukraine — In a single climactic day, the political order of Ukraine was overturned, more or less peacefully, when the Ukrainian parliament voted Saturday evening to dismiss President Viktor Yanukovych from office and to free jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who went directly from a prison hospital bed to a stage at Independence Square to address an audience of tens of thousands.
The parliament, now dominated by opposition politicians, declared that an election to choose a new president would be held May 25. “A day for the history books,” tweeted Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
Yanukovych, whose whereabouts had been unknown since Friday evening, appeared on television earlier Saturday to say he would not resign. Instead, he called opposition lawmakers “bandits” and said their actions in parliament were illegal. The parliament plans to quickly name a prime minister and cabinet to act as a caretaker government before elections scheduled for May. Still unknown is whether a defiant Yanukovych and a bitterly divided Ukraine will accept the parliament’s decrees. Leaders of the ousted government, especially those from Ukraine’s east and south, said they would oppose the new measures.
Just a few hours after parliament voted to oust the president, his arch political enemy, Yulia Tymoshenko, a key figure in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, was freed from prison. Just hours after parliament voted to oust the president, his arch rival Tymoshenko, a key figure in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, was released from prison after serving 30 months.
Tymoshenko, a former two-term prime minister, was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted in 2011 of abuse of power and embezzlement over her role in a deal to purchase natural gas from Russia. Her supporters and many Western countries said her trial and conviction were politically motivated. Tymoshenko, suffering from a back injury, was rolled onstage in pink wheelchair. She gave an emotional, forceful speech, honoring the 88 Ukrainians killed in street fighting and by riot police since Tuesday.
After being freed, her supporters said, she was on her way to address the huge crowds gathering in Independence Square. The opposition leader, who still has her trademark blond braids, said that Ukraine would not be truly free until "everyone bears a responsibility for what they have done," a clear reference to the president and his ousted interior minister, who controlled the riot police that used live ammunition against protesters. "If we don't prosecute, we should be ashamed.”
Ukrainians awoke Saturday morning to rumors and reports that Yanukovych had fled to his home town in the east or left the country. Thousands poured onto the grounds of presidential residence, 12 miles from downtown Kiev, to gawk at the manicured lawns, the golf course and the botanical gardens, while other government offices were shuttered amid reports that workers at the public prosecutor’s office were destroying documents. She told the crowd, “You changed everything -- not the politicians, not the diplomats, you changed the world,” and called the ousted government “a dictatorship.”
Yanukovych made his appearance on UBR television Saturday from an undisclosed location. “I remain on Ukrainian territory,” he said. “I will appeal to all the international observers, to all the mediators who have been involved in this political conflict to stop the bandits — they are not opposition, they are bandits.” Tymoshenko, a former two-term prime minister, was sentenced to seven years in prison in a 2011 trial charging her with abuse of power and embezzlement over her role in a deal to purchase natural gas from Russia. Her supporters and many Western countries said was trial and conviction were politically motivated.
Ukraine’s parliament voted 328 to zero to remove Yanukovych from office, with many members of Yanukovych’s party absent or abstaining. In an emergency session, the Ukraine parliament voted 380 to 0 on Saturday to remove Yanukovych from office, saying he was guilty of gross human rights violations and dereliction of duty. Many of Yanukovych’s allies were absent or abstained from voting.
In his brief remarks on television, Yanukovych said that members of his Party of Regions were defecting, not because of their association with him but because they feared for their lives. He accused the opposition militias of threatening the politicians and burning their offices. Then the parliament, now dominated by opposition politicians, declared that early presidential elections would be held on May 25.
The White House issued a statement saying the administration is closely monitoring developments. “The unshakeable principle guiding events must be that the people of Ukraine determine their own future,” the statement said. Thousands filled Independence Square in the capital, which is still ringed by barricades erected by protesters and “self-defense” militias. The militia members kept order and continued to march in military columns, brandishing home-made metal shields, with wooden clubs and axes over their shoulders.
Earlier in the day, police abandoned the center of Kiev to protesters who had commandeered water cannon trucks and claimed full control of the city. Tymoshenko, who blinked back tears several times, promised, "I am coming back to work. I won't waste a minute to make sure you are happy on your own land.”
Museum officials were working with opposition cadres to guard their shuttered buildings. They were also awaiting permission to enter the presidential mansion and inventory possessions and artworks they say were likely borrowed or stolen by Yanukovych from state museums and institutions. She ran for president in 2010, but lost to Yanukovych, and most people here assume Tymoshenko would run in the May contest.
The crowds of ordinary Ukrainians getting their first glimpse of the luxurious estate Saturday morning wandered the grounds taking photos. An elderly pensioner shouted, “What a thief!” as he took in the marble statuary. Yanukovych, his exact whereabouts unknown since Friday evening, appeared on television Saturday afternoon in a pre-recorded interview to say, “I am not planning to leave the country. I am the legitimate president and I am not going to resign.”
There was no looting, no one was allowed to enter the houses or outbuildings, and opposition protesters who had manned the barricades in Independence Square, the epicenter of the anti-government demonstrations, warned visitors to keep off the grass. He called the opposition politicians in parliament “bandits,” their actions “illegal,” and described the protesters as “hooligans.”
A group of young people somehow found their way into Yanukovych’s clubhouse and brought out golf balls and clubs and whacked a few drives down the course. “What we witness now resembles Nazi occupation,” Yanukovych said. “My car was shot at. But I am not afraid for my life, I am afraid for my country.”
On Friday, Yanukovych signed a deal with opposition leaders to dilute his powers, form a caretaker government and hold early elections. Lawmakers introduced an article of dismissal for Yanukovych and chose Oleksandr Turchynov as the new speaker of parliament. 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. Yanukovych said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that he spoken with President Obama and promised, “we will negotiate,” he said.
Turchynov, a leader of the opposition Fatherland Party, said he wanted to quickly form a caretaker government. His selection was welcomed by the U.S. ambassador in Kiev. But the White House released a statement that praised the “constructive work” done by the Ukrainian parliament and urged “the prompt formation of a broad, technocratic government of national unity.”
The agreement reached Friday 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 statement also applauded Tymoshenko’s release from prison, saying “We wish her a speedy recovery as she seeks the appropriate medical treatment that she has long needed and sought.” It did not mention Yanukovych.
Several Ukrainian outlets reported late Friday that Yanukovych 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.” “We have been monitoring the situation very closely,” said a senior state department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because conditions remained so fluid. “What the United States and our European partners have been advocating for consistently this week is a de-escalation of violence, constitutional change, a coalition government, and early elections. The developments we are seeing on the ground are ... moving us closer to those goals.”
The atmosphere remained tense late Friday in Independence Square. 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 or face the wrath of the people. Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the opposition leaders in Ukraine were "pushing new demands, submitting itself to armed extremists and looters whose actions pose a direct threat to the sovereignty and constitutional order of Ukraine," according to Interfax news agency.
“We will go with weapons,” said the protester, who leads one of the more militant groups in the square. “I swear it.” Ukrainians awoke Saturday morning to rumors and reports that Yanukovych had fled the country, though he is now believed to have returned to his home base in the east of the country.
The pact, reached after Ukraine’s bloodiest week of street fighting and following all-night negotiations sponsored by European and Russian officials, calls for an immediate return to the 2004 constitution, which gives parliament, not the president, the right to choose a prime minister and most of the cabinet. The new speaker of the parliament, Oleksandr Turchynov, told his fellow deputies Saturday that Yanukovych had attempted to flee the country.
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. "He tried to get on a plane that was bound for the Russian Federation but was stopped by border guards. At the moment he's hiding somewhere in the Donetsk region," Turchynov said, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. The Donetsk region is eastern Ukraine, which is where Yanukovych’s Russian-speaking political base lives.
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 law that made possible the quick release of Tymoshenko. Police surrendered the center of Kiev to protesters who had commandeered water cannon trucks and personnel carriers from retreating security forces, and claimed full control of the city.
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. The self-defense militia, composed of hardcore protesters wearing military surplus helmets and mismatched body armor, were enlisted to guard government buildings and direct traffic. The city was peaceful.
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. “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. Tens of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians poured onto the grounds of Yanukovych’s abandoned presidential compound, 12 miles from downtown Kiev, to gawk at the manicured lawns, small zoo, golf course, botanical gardens and classic car collection.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, head of the parliamentary faction of the 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. Museum officials were working with militias to guard the presidential mansion and inventory possessions and art works they say were likely borrowed or stolen by Yanukovych from state museums and institutions.
[READ: A look at the key players in the protests and deal] “Who knows what he has stashed in there,” said Ihor Lihovy, a consultant for the Ukrainian national committee for the preservation of national treasures. “We have been told he was hoarded masterpieces. It is a scandal.”
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. Yanukovych built his mansion and its outbuildings after he was elected president in 2010. None of the Ukrainian public or media had seen inside the compound until Saturday. An elderly pensioner with a mouth full of metal teeth shouted, “What a thief!” as he took in the marble statuary.
The total death toll from clashes reached 77, the Health Ministry said Friday, with 379 others hospitalized. The crowds were orderly and polite. There was no looting, few were allowed to enter the houses or outbuildings, and opposition protesters even warned visitors to keep off the grass.
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. A group of young people, however, somehow found their way into Yanukovych’s clubhouse and brought out golf balls and clubs and whacked a few drives down the long fairways.
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.” Anne Gearan contributed to this report from Washington.