Ukraine leader, opposition reach deal to end crisis

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s leader and opposition said Friday they had agreed to a deal to end the splintered country’s worst crisis since independence after three days of carnage left nearly 100 protesters dead and the heart of Kiev resembling a war zone.

President Viktor Yanukovych’s dramatic announcement that he was ready to hold early elections and form a new unity government was brief and met with caution by the tens of thousands gathered on central Kiev’s main square for a protest that began exactly three months earlier.

However, Ukraine’s nationalist opposition leader Oleh Tyahnybok said the protesters had conditionally agreed to the terms.

“It was decided to approve the decision to sign the agreement with the president on the condition that the (current) interior minister is not in the next government and the attorney general is replaced,” he was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s Interfax news agency.

The European Union confirmed that a “temporary” agreement had been reached after marathon talks with Yanukovych and opposition leaders that began on Thursday and stretched into Friday afternoon.

The peace pact met the demands the opposition had laid down at the start of the protests: the balance of political power would shift back to parliament – as it had been before Yanukovych assumed the presidency in 2010 and took the nation of 46 million on a course away from the West and toward Russia.

It would also create an opposition cabinet with the authority to reverse Yanukovych’s decision in November to ditch an historic deal that would have put Ukraine on the path to eventual membership of the EU, which many Ukrainians see as their protector from centuries of Russian domination.

But the opposition has radicalized since police used live ammunition to mow down dozens with snipers and Kalashnikov rifles.

The chant of “death to the criminal” – a reference to two later-pardoned convictions for petty crime Yanukovych received in the Soviet era — rose over Kiev’s iconic Independence Square overnight Thursday.

“I think that Yanukovych must leave now, and never come back,” said a middle-aged protester named Lyudmila.

“We do not need any elections. He should not be allowed to run.”

Conditional approval

Three EU foreign ministers and an envoy for Russian President Vladimir Putin flew in for emergency talks on Thursday amid growing anxiety about a crisis that has turned Ukraine into a prize fought for with Cold War-era gusto by Moscow and the West.

“The parties agreed on the initialing of an agreement to resolve the crisis,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a brief statement issued after a night of negotiations.

It said the deal was to be signed at 1000 GMT, but the time passed without any formal announcement.

The foreign ministers of EU powers France and Germany – as well as Ukraine’s culturally-close ally Poland – then went into separate talks with Ukraine’s three top opposition leaders in order to convince them to back the pact.

The Ukrainian trio is led by charismatic boxer turned lawmaker and presidential contender Vitali Klitschko – the closest the deeply fragmented protest movement has to a single leader who can articulate the demonstrators’ demands.

But limits to their sway over the most militant elements of the opposition that has roots in the nationalist west of Ukraine has been repeatedly exposed in the course of the crisis.

A Western source confirmed Tyahnybok’s initially positive response to the deal at talks in a Kiev hotel between the three EU envoys and more than 30 opposition representatives.

“After the talks with foreign ministers and the opposition, the Maidan (Independence Square) representatives have agreed to agreement,” the Western source told reporters.

But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged caution for those who expected to see a quick solution that could put the economically-struggling country back on its feet.

“For now, this objective (to end bloodshed) has been achieved, but the road to an agreement is still very far off,” Tusk told reporters in Warsaw.

And there was no immediate word from the Ukrainian presidency about the fate of Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko.

EU sanctions

The shocking scale of the bloodshed prompted EU officials to slap travel bans against Ukrainians responsible for ordering the use of force.

Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said an agreement was also reached at an emergency EU meeting in Brussels to impose asset freezes on those with “blood on their hands”.

US Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday warned Yanukovych in a telephone conversation that Washington was ready to impose sanctions on officials guilty of ordering troops to fire on protesters.

Ukraine’s former master Russia blasted the sanctions as “bullying”.

Kiev authorities have put the death toll from the past few days at 77.

But opposition medics said more than 60 protesters were shot dead by police on Thursday alone – a toll that combined with the 28 victims on Tuesday put the final count at nearly 100 dead.

Life appeared to be returning to normal in much of Kiev as the city’s vital metro network resumed service after being shut down to keep protesters from reaching Independence Square on Tuesday night.

But many protesters told AFP that the deal represented too little and came much too late.

“These steps were what we needed but I think it is now too late after all the blood that has been spilt,” said 58-year-old Sergiy Yanchukov.

“It was a crime against humanity and Yanukovych should be sent to The Hague (home of the International Criminal Court). – Rappler.com