In Ukraine, relative calm as both sides await outcome of talks
In Ukraine, no breakthrough in talks to end crisis, but a glimmer of one
(about 7 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Protesters and police took a breather Thursday as relative calm reigned in the Ukrainian capital, while both sides tensely await the outcome of talks between President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders.
KIEV, Ukraine — After a day of sometimes violent protests in cities across Ukraine, political adversaries trying to negotiate an end to the crisis here hammered out a few early compromises Thursday night before breaking off talks until later.
The opposition has demanded early elections, and Wednesday night it presented Yanukovych with a deadline of 8 p.m. Thursday.
The leaders of the three main opposition parties spent three hours with President Viktor Yanukovych and left the presidential offices looking less than thrilled with what they had wrought so far. They were met with jeers and shouts of dismay when they tried to make their case to the protesters who have been at the center of fierce clashes with police on Hrushevsky Street, near the capital’s Dynamo Stadium.
Vitali Klitschko, head of the UDAR opposition party, was reported to have gone in to see Yanukovych early Thursday afternoon, but it was not clear whether the other two main participants in the talks — Arseniy Yatsenyuk of the Fatherland party and Oleh Tiahnybok of the Svoboda party — would be joining them.
Yet for the first time since the protests began Nov. 21, a glimpse of a possible solution was visible. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, head of the Fatherland party, said there is a “high chance” that further bloodshed can be avoided. But that would depend on the good faith of Yanukovych and his government — something the opposition has been loath to count on.
Yanukovych called for the parliament, or Verkhovna Rada, to come back into session to consider solutions to the crisis. The immediate cause of the escalation in tension was the Rada’s quick passage a week ago of legislation cracking down on free speech and assembly. The opposition has demanded that the harsh new laws be repealed.
The immediate trade-off would be an end to the clashes in return for the release of all those detained during the protests. As Oleh Tiahnybok, leader of the nationalist Svoboda party, was outlining this tentative agreement to the young men on Hrushevsky, angry protesters reignited the piles of tires that had burned there all day Wednesday.
Parliament is supposed to be in recess until Feb. 4, but the speaker, Volodomyr Rybak, said it could reconvene early next week. Repeal might offer the beginning of a way out of the deadlock, but it is by no means a foregone conclusion.
Vitali Klitschko, head of the UDAR opposition party, said the negotiations would resume but did not say when.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, accused protesters of trying to stage a coup d’etat and said it would be unrealistic to hold an early presidential election, according to a Reuters news agency report.
Yanukovych seemed to spend most of the day trying to buy himself time. He ordered parliament to come back from recess next Tuesday to reconsider the harsh laws restricting speech and protest that it passed last week and to take up a no-confidence vote in the government.
“A genuine attempt at a coup d’etat is being carried out,” the Interfax news agency quoted Azarov as saying. “All those who support this coup should say clearly, ‘Yes, we are for the overthrow of the legitimate authorities in Ukraine,’ and not hide behind peaceful protesters.”
He hinted that the new laws would be watered down or even repealed, but he didn’t say so. With his Party of Regions holding a majority in parliament, it is highly unlikely that a no-confidence motion would pass.
Protest organizers reported that overnight, police had roughed up and detained a dozen or more people they suspected of being part of the long-running demonstration here. One group, from an offshoot called Avtomaidan, had gone to try to intercept suspected thugs for hire near the parliament building. Instead, organizers said, they were set upon by riot police, beaten and detained.
He sharply criticized the unpopular prime minister, Mykola Azarov, who had said that those killed during this week’s clashes deserved it. Azarov spent Thursday in Davos, Switzerland, where he walked those remarks back. It was not clear whether Yanukovych is actually prepared to lose his prime minister in a no-confidence vote or merely wants to give the impression, for the time being, that that could happen.
Several hundred young men apparently hired by the government ringed the U.S. Embassy here overnight, protesting what they called American interference in Ukrainian affairs.
He took a call Thursday evening from Vice President Biden, who warned him against allowing any further violence.
Klitschko had called for a general strike Thursday to last for an hour starting at noon. A check around the city found little evidence he had been heeded outside the environs of the Maidan, or Independence Square, where the main protest encampment has been since Nov. 21. But several hundred students from a teachers college on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, about a mile from the Maidan, gathered in the median strip to show support for the protest and to demand an end to police violence.
“The Vice President underscored that freedoms of assembly and expression are fundamental pillars of a democratic society and must be protected,” according to a White House statement. “While emphasizing that violence by any side is not acceptable, the Vice President underscored that only the government of Ukraine can ensure a peaceful end to the crisis and further bloodshed would have consequences for Ukraine’s relationship with the United States.”
“Of course a peaceful solution will be a problem,” said Lyuba Ragozina, 24. “But we’re here because we support the people.”
At least three activists were killed this week and hundreds wounded. Ukrainians were scandalized by a video that appears to show riot police taunting a man, standing in the snow, whom they had stripped naked. The much resented Interior Ministry apologized for their behavior.
Farther along the boulevard, at St. Volodomyr’s Cathedral, a bell-ringer in the tower sent out a clangorous endorsement of the strike.
Protests erupted Thursday in Cherkasy, Zhitomyr, Rovno and Ternopol. There was even a small one in Donetsk, Yanukovych’s home town. In Lviv, a mob forced the governor to sign a letter of resignation, although he later appealed to prosecutors to annul it.
Thousands filled the Maidan itself, creating a much larger crowd than recent noontime weekdays have seen. On Wednesday evening, when a police action was feared, tens of thousands turned out. With its huge and now-reinforced barriers, the Maidan would not be an easy objective for the police to sweep clean, especially if there are 50,000 or more people on it — many of them young men willing to mix it up with the police.
Klitschko, appearing before a large crowd on Kiev’s Maidan, or Independence Square, shortly after midnight, spoke slowly and quietly. He said Yanukovych had tried to bully them during the evening discussions. “But we will not give up,” he said.
Mass bloodshed would seem to be out of the question. Yanukovych is deeply disliked by nearly half the country, and a full-scale assault on the Maidan would send shock waves nationwide.
At the same time, it is clear that the protesters, most of them nationalists who have been fighting police near Dynamo Stadium, are not under the control of the opposition leaders. Klitschko asked for a “cease-fire” Thursday at that site, which was generally observed by both sides, but it’s unlikely to last if there is no progress toward a settlement. By midday, the burning piles of tires that protesters had ignited to create a smoke screen had been doused as the sun appeared for the first time all week, the air finally clear.
