This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Ukraine Leader Agrees to Deal Amid Move to Free Archrival
Kiev Has Deal, but Both Russia and Protesters Appear Wary
(about 1 hour later)
KIEV, Ukraine — The embattled president of Ukraine, whose shift toward closer relations with Russia provoked the deadliest political crisis in his country’s post-Soviet history, signed a compromise deal on Friday that will diminish his power and watched helplessly as an emboldened Parliament voted overwhelmingly to free his imprisoned rival and grant amnesty to all protesters.
KIEV, Ukraine — A deal aimed at ending a lethal spiral of violence in Ukraine began to show serious strains late Friday just hours after it had been signed, with angry protesters shouting down opposition members of Parliament who negotiated the accord and a militant leader threatening armed attacks if President Viktor F. Yanukovych did not step down by morning.
The agreement signed by President Viktor F. Yanukovych and leaders of the opposition, mediated by European and Russian diplomats, commits him to early elections and reduces some presidential authority. Although Russia declined to endorse the deal, and many protesters — suspicious of the president’s motives — said they wanted Mr. Yanukovych to resign, opposition leaders said they hoped to persuade the skeptics and end a bloody standoff that shocked the nation and much of the world.
Russia, which joined France, Germany and Poland in mediating the settlement, introduced a further element of ominous uncertainty by declining to sign the accord, which reduces the power of Mr. Yanukovych, a firm ally of Moscow. This stirred fears that Moscow might now work to undo the deal through economic and other pressures, as it did last year to subvert a proposed trade deal between Ukraine and the European Union.
In a further sign of the president’s diminished influence, Parliament voted to allow the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been imprisoned for more than two years. In a 310-to-54 vote that is veto-proof, lawmakers decriminalized the actions for which she was incarcerated.
The developments cast a shadow over a hard-fought accord that mandates early presidential elections by December, a swift return to a 2004 constitution that sharply limited the president’s powers and the establishment within 10 days of a “government of national trust.” In a series of votes that followed the accord and reflected Parliament’s determination to make the settlement work, lawmakers moved to free Mr. Yanukovich’s imprisoned rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, grant blanket amnesty to all antigovernment protesters and provide financial aid to the hundreds of wounded and families of the dead.
It was not immediately clear when Ms. Tymoshenko might be released from a penitentiary in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she has been serving her sentence since August 2011. But she is still considered one of Mr. Yanukovych’s most potent adversaries. Many of her supporters blame Mr. Yanukovych for ordering her imprisonment.
Aside for a series of loud explosions on Friday night and angry chants in the protest encampment, Kiev was generally quiet. And the authorities, although previously divided about over how to handle the crisis, seemed eager to avoid more confrontations. By late in the afternoon, all the police had vacated the government district of the capital, leaving behind burned military trucks, mattresses and heaps of garbage at the positions they had occupied for months.
The English-language website of The Kyiv Post quoted a lawyer for Ms. Tymoshenko, Serhiy Vlasenko, as saying prosecutors must now file a petition to the court to release her, and the entire process could take up to two weeks. Ms. Tymoshenko also would be able to run for office, since she would have no criminal record.
On Independence Square, the focal point of the protest movement, however, the mood was one of deep anger and determination, not triumph. “Get out criminal! Death to the criminal!” the crowd chanted, reaffirming what, after a week of bloody violence, has become a nonnegotiable demand for many protesters: the immediate departure of Mr. Yanukovych.
Parliament also approved a pivotal point in the political settlement by taking the first step toward reverting to a previous version of Ukraine’s Constitution, which significantly weakens the power of the president. With support from the pro-government party, the Party of Regions, that was required to vote with a constitutional majority, lawmakers annulled amendments to the Constitution adopted after 2008, before Mr. Yanukovych became president. The change was adopted with 386 votes, well above the 300 needed.
When Vitali Klitschko, one of the three opposition leaders who signed the deal, spoke in its defense, people screamed “shame!” A coffin was then hauled on the stage to remind him of the more than 70 people who had died during wild violence on Thursday, the most lethal day of political mayhem in Ukraine since independence from the Soviet Union more than 22 years ago.
Lawmakers also passed an unconditional and blanket amnesty for all participants in the antigovernment protests absolving those in custody or under investigation now and prohibiting future prosecutions of protesters. They also voted to dismiss the minister of the interior, a reviled figure among protesters.
The violence escalated the urgency of the crisis, which began with the protests in late November following a decision by Mr. Yanukovych to spurn a trade and political deal with the European Union and tilt his nation toward Russia instead.
In a further action, the lawmakers voted to provide financial assistance to the hundreds of protesters wounded over the past several days, and to the families of those killed.
It was difficult to know how much of the fury voiced on Friday night in Independence Square was fiery bravado, a final cry of anger before the three-month-long protest movement winds down or the harbinger of yet more and possibly worse violence to come.
The series of votes, which amounted to a sweeping concession by pro-government lawmakers, came hours after word of the political deal reached between Mr. Yanukovych and the main opposition leaders.
Vividly clear, however, was the wide gulf that had opened up between the opposition’s political leadership and a street movement that has radicalized and slipped far from the already tenuous control of politicians.
Outside the Parliament building, the police pulled back from the sandbagged parapets for shooting down a cobblestoned street to the protester barricades 500 yards away. The police abandoned military trucks and crowd-control vehicles on the street, which some protesters were hot-wiring and driving away.
Mr. Klitschko was interrupted by an angry radical who did not give his name but said he was the leader of a group of fighters, known as “a hundred.”
Dozens of opposition street fighters walked up to the unguarded Parliament building and milled about. As the lawmakers inside were voting, one man wearing a motorcycle helmet and carrying an ax sat on a curb outside.
“We gave chances to politicians to become future ministers, presidents, but they don’t want to fulfill one condition - that the criminal go away!,” he said, vowing to lead an armed attack if Mr. Yanukovych had not announced his resignation by 10 a.m. local time on Saturday. The crowd shouted: “Yes! Yes!”
“The main goal today is to lower tensions and prevent bloodshed,” Artyum Ilyuk, a member of the pro-government Party of Regions, said in an interview explaining his willingness to vote on the compromises. “I will vote for whatever will stop the bloodshed.”
Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of Right Sector, a coalition of hard-line nationalist groups, reacted defiantly to news of the settlement, drawing more cheers from the crowd.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister and part of a European team that has been pushing for a settlement, said a council representing some protesters in Independence Square in Kiev, the focal point of months of protests, had endorsed the hard-fought deal in a vote, with 34 voting in favor and only two against.
“The agreements that were reached do not correspond to our aspirations,” he said. “Right Sector will not lay down arms. Right Sector will not lift the blockade of a single administrative building until our main demand is met -- the resignation of Yanukovych.”
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, one of three opposition members of Parliament who signed the accord with Mr. Yanukovych, acknowledged that it might not go down well with protesters who want Mr. Yanukovych gone, but said they could be persuaded.
He added that he and his supporters are “ready to take responsibility for the further development of the revolution.” The crowd shouted: “Good! Good!”
“We need to explain, and we need to not only explain, we need to act,” he said after marathon negotiations at the presidential administration building. “People will never trust any kind of signature. People will trust real action.”
Previous settlements and truces have all broken down, engulfed by wild bursts of violence on the streets of the capital, Kiev, and unrest in other parts of the country, particularly western regions where anti-government sentiment has always been strong.
A bigger problem could be a refusal by Russia’s representative to join the Europeans in signing the accord, which suggested Moscow might work to undo the deal through economic or other pressure. “I am upset that the Russians are not signatories,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said. “I am really upset.”
Eric Fournier, France’s representative at the talks, cautioned that Friday’s deal was “a beginning, not an end. There is still a lot of anger around.”
Previous settlements and truces have broken down several times, engulfed by wild bursts of violence on the streets of Kiev, the capital, and in other parts of the country, particularly western regions where antigovernment sentiment has always been strong.
The pressure for a political settlement has been intense, coming not only from European governments but from a widespread fear among the population that this former Soviet republic of 46 million people was hurtling toward a possible civil war, particularly after the frenzied violence on Thursday.
But these previous deals were not reached with the high-level involvement of outside mediators, as was the case in the overnight talks Friday, which continued until the middle of the afternoon. A statement from Mr. Yanukovych’s office, issued before the signing, said the talks had been “very difficult.”
In a sign that the accord could yield concrete results, Parliament, long dominated by the president’s Party of Regions, passed a law that would allow the release from prison of Ms. Tymoshenko, an opposition leader who was incarcerated after she lost the 2010 presidential election to Mr. Yanukovych. It was unclear when she might be freed from a penitentiary in eastern Ukraine, where she has been held since August 2011.
The pressure for a political settlement has been intense, coming not only from foreign governments but also from a widespread fear among the population that this former Soviet republic of 46 million people was hurtling toward a possible civil war, particularly after frenzied violence on Thursday that the opposition says killed more than 70 protesters.
A few protesters interpreted the departure of the police from the government district and the announced agreement as a victory. “I cannot believe it, but I think we won,” said one as he walked past the unguarded Cabinet of Ministers building, an act that would have got him beaten or shot earlier in the week.
Thursday was the most lethal day of political mayhem in Ukraine since independence from the Soviet Union more than 22 years ago. The violence escalated the urgency of the crisis, which began with protests in late November after a decision by Mr. Yanukovych to spurn a trade and political agreement with the European Union and tilt his nation toward Russia instead.
Russia’s decision to distance itself from the accord leaves in place one of the primary sources of tension driving a Ukrainian crisis that is not only a domestic political battle but a geopolitical struggle between Russia and the West. Washington and other Western capitals cheered the accord, but Moscow complained that it had been largely negotiated by the Europeans and Ukrainians, and said that agreed-to changes to Ukraine’s constitution to give more power to Parliament should first be put to a referendum.
As word of a compromise deal spread on Friday, many protesters responded angrily to the proposition that any settlement was possible until Mr. Yanukovych left office. Many demanded that he be put on trial, along with officials whom protesters hold responsible for volleys of gunfire and attacks by snipers.
“I am upset that the Russians are not signatories. I am really upset,” said Arseniy Yatsenyuk, one of the three opposition leaders who signed. Mr. Yatsenyuk, speaking to reporters shortly after signing himself, acknowledged that the settlement might not go down well with protesters, but said they could be persuaded, especially as they would be allowed to maintain their protest encampment in Independence Square.
The deal reached Friday instead leaves Mr. Yanukovych in power until at least the end of the year — unless lawmakers use provisions under the constitutional change that would allow them to impeach him sooner.
“We need to explain and we need to not only explain we need to act,” said Mr. Yatsenyuk, a bespectacled former finance minister who is viewed as too soft by the protest movement’s more militant elements. “People will never trust any kind of signature. People will trust real action.”
It calls for early presidential elections in December, a swift return to a constitution of 2004 that sharply limited the president’s powers, and the establishment within 10 days of a “government of national trust.”
But as happened with previous deals, the concessions made by Mr. Yanukovych were seen by many protesters as too little, too late.
“We don’t want to wait until December,” said Roman Kvasuk, an antigovernment protester standing at a newly reinforced barricade on Hrushevsky Street, a scene of frequent and bloody clashes with riot police officers.
Had he offered to revise the constitution and hold early elections a month ago, he would probably have calmed his opponents.
Yuriy Korshenko, a lawyer and former judge who joined thousands of others at Mikhailovsky Cathededral near Independence Square to show support for the protesters, said Mr. Yanukovych must leave office immediately “or he will end up like Ceaucescu and Qaddafi.”
But Thursday’s bloodshed created so much anger that protesters, particularly those who manned burning barricades and held back riot police officers, want far more than an elaborate political deal that limits but does not end Mr. Yanukovych’s power.
The Romanian and Libyan dictators, Nicolae Ceaucescu and Muammar el-Qaddafi, were killed in bloody uprisings. Mr. Korshenko added, “If Yanukovych were a man of honor, he would have already shot himself.”
Even more moderate opponents of the president want him gone and even dead. Unless he resigns, Yuriy Korshenko, a lawyer and former judge, said, “he will end up like Ceausescu and Qaddafi.” The Romanian and Libyan dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu and Muammar el-Qaddafi, were both killed in bloody uprisings against their rule.
European officials greeted the news of an agreement with caution, with some indicating it was premature to say an accord had really been reached.
“If Yanukovych were a man of honor he would have already shot himself,” Mr. Korshenko added during a visit on Friday to Mikhailovsky Cathedral, a golden-domed church that has served as a clinic and logistics center for the protest movement.
Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, who helped mediate the talks, said much remained unresolved. “As long as things are not effectively completed, we must remain very prudent,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “The opposition wants to consult a certain number of its supporters, which is understandable,” Mr. Fabius said, according to The A.P. “We discussed all subjects during these negotiations. It was done in an extremely difficult atmosphere, because there were dozens of dead and the country is on the verge of civil war.”
Thousands of mostly middle-class people thronged the church on Thursday to show their support, erupting in cheers when a woman announced, erroneously, that Mr. Yanukovych had agreed to step down.
The mass shootings on Thursday followed a quickly shattered truce, with enraged protesters parading dozens of captured police officers through Kiev’s central square.
“We don’t want to wait until December,” said Roman Kvasuk, an anti-government protester manning a newly reinforced barricade on Hrushevsky Street, a scene of frequent and bloody clashes with riot police officers. Mr. Kvasuk was speaking as he and a group of fellow activists planned to walk up the street toward Parliament, a move that in previous days would have drawn gunfire from jittery government forces responsible for protecting official buildings.
Mr. Yanukovych lost at least a dozen political allies, including the mayor of the capital, who resigned from the Party of Regions to protest the bloodshed.
Images of bullet-riddled bodies slumped amid smoldering debris, some of them shot in the head, and screaming medics carrying the dead and wounded to emergency clinics, including one in a hotel lobby. The widespread use of firearms in the center of the city was a new and ominous element for the protest movement.
Late Thursday, the State Department issued a new travel warning in light of the violence, urging against “all nonessential travel to Ukraine due to the ongoing political unrest and violent clashes between police and protesters.”
Earlier, there had been rumors that Mr. Yanukovych, his police ranks stretched thin, might declare a state of emergency, a move that could herald the deployment of the military to help quell the crisis. But his authority to do so was unclear.
Both the United States and the European Union, which made good on pledges to slap punitive sanctions on Ukrainian officials deemed to be responsible for the deadly escalation, warned Mr. Yanukovych to avoid declaring a state of emergency.
