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Archrival Is Freed as Ukraine Leader Flees Ukraine Parliament Moves Swiftly to Dismantle President’s Government
(about 9 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Abandoned by his own guards and reviled across the Ukrainian capital but still determined to recover his shredded authority, President Viktor F. Yanukovych fled Kiev on Saturday to denounce what he called a violent coup, as his official residence, his vast, colonnaded office complex and other once impregnable centers of power fell without a fight to throngs of joyous citizens stunned by their triumph. KIEV, Ukraine — A day after President Viktor F. Yanukovych fled the Ukrainian capital and was removed from power by a unanimous vote in Parliament, lawmakers moved swiftly on Sunday to dismantle the remaining vestiges of his government by firing top cabinet members, including the foreign minister.
While Mr. Yanukovych’s nemesis, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, was released from a penitentiary hospital, Parliament found the president unable to fulfill his duties and exercised its constitutional powers to set an election for May 25 to select his replacement. But with both Mr. Yanukovych and his Russian patrons speaking of a “coup” carried out by “bandits” and “hooligans,” it was far from clear that the day’s lightning-quick events would be the last act in a struggle that has not just convulsed Ukraine but expanded into an East-West confrontation reminiscent of the Cold War. With Parliament, led by the speaker, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, firmly in control of the federal government — if not yet the country as a whole — lawmakers began an emergency session on Sunday by adopting a law restoring state ownership of Mr. Yanukovych’s opulent presidential palace, which he had privatized.
Ms. Tymoshenko, who was jailed by Mr. Yanukovych after losing the presidential election in 2010, was released Saturday evening from the hospital in eastern Ukraine where she had been held, her representatives said. Many Ukrainians — and virtually all of the pro-Western protesters — believe her conviction was politically motivated and regard her as something of a martyr to their cause. Late Saturday she appeared on the stage in the Maidan square in a wheelchair and delivered a speech that was greeted by cheers and chants of “Yulia! Yulia!” Parliament voted to grant Mr. Turchynov authority to carry out the duties of the president of Ukraine, adding to his authority to lead the government that lawmakers had approved on Saturday.
She addressed her audience as “heroes,” and told them, “I was dreaming to see your eyes. I was dreaming to feel the power that changed everything.” Beyond that, Parliament did not take any further action to appoint interim leaders, but speculation about an immediate major role for the freed former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, was squashed on Saturday afternoon when she issued a statement asking not to be considered for the post again.
Though obviously in poor health, Ms. Tymoshenko is widely expected to run for president in the coming election, if it comes off as scheduled. Depending on her health, Ms. Tymoshenko, who has complained of chronic back problems since she was jailed in 2011, may run for president in elections now scheduled for May 25, and many of her supporters are eager to build a campaign. In a sign of her still formidable political influence, Ms. Tymoshenko spoke by telephone on Sunday with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, as well as with Stefan Fule, a top European Union official, and with Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut. Ms. Tymoshenko also met with ambassadors from the United States and European Union countries.
At the presidential residence a short distance from the capital, protesters carrying clubs and some wearing masks were in control of the entryways Saturday morning and watched as thousands of citizens strolled through the grounds in wonder. “This commences a new life for Ukraine,” said Roman Dakus, a protester-turned-guard, who was wearing a ski helmet and carrying a length of pipe as he blocked a doorway at the compound. “This is only a start,” he added. “We need now to make a new structure and a new system, a foundation for our future, with rights for everybody, and we need to investigate who ordered the violence.” Critics, including a small crowd of demonstrators gathered outside the Parliament, said Ms. Tymoshenko should bow out, making way for a new generation of leaders.
With the riot police they battled for days having disappeared, the protesters claimed to be in charge of security for the city. There was no sign of looting, either in the city proper or in the presidential compound. Ms. Tymoshenko, long Mr. Yanukovych’s political rival, was released on Saturday from a prison hospital in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and quickly made her way here to Kiev, the capital, where she appeared briefly in a wheelchair in Independence Square. Ms. Tymoshenko was jailed by Mr. Yanukovych after losing the presidential election in 2010. Many in Ukraine and the West believe that her conviction was politically motivated.
A pugnacious Mr. Yanukovych appeared on television Saturday afternoon, apparently from the eastern city of Kharkiv, near Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia, saying he had been forced to leave the capital because of a “coup,” and that he had not resigned, and had no plans to. He said indignantly that his car had been fired upon as he drove away. Andriy Shevchenko, a member of Parliament and the leader of Ms. Tymoshenko’s Fatherland Party, said that she would ultimately decide what role she envisioned for herself, based on her health. “It really depends on whether she wants to run our not,” Mr. Shevchenko said in an interview. “I think she has enough strength to be active in politics.”
“I don’t plan to leave the country. I don’t plan to resign,” he said, speaking in Russian rather than Ukrainian, the country’s official language. “I am a legitimately elected president.” He added: “What is happening today, mostly, it is vandalism, banditism and a coup d'état. This is my assessment and I am deeply convinced of this. I will remain on the territory of Ukraine.” He also complained of “traitors” among his own former supporters but he declined to name them. In Kiev, Ms. Tymoshenko received an enthusiastic but not overly exuberant reception from the crowd in Independence Square. The response demonstrated her continued popularity and status as a symbol of opposition to Mr. Yanukovych but also underscored the apprehension that many Ukranians feel toward politicians deeply connected to a government with a long history of corruption and mismanagement.
Regional governors from eastern Ukraine met in Kharkiv and adopted a resolution resisting the authority of Parliament. They said that until matters were resolved, “we have decided to take responsibility for safeguarding the constitutional order, legality, citizens’ rights and their security on our territories.” Mr. Yanukovych, meanwhile, whose whereabouts remained unknown, appeared to be losing the support of even his former allies. On Sunday, Mr. Yanukovich’s Party of Regions, which days ago enjoyed a majority in Parliament, released a statement blaming him for the recent violence.
One of the few institutions still taking orders from the president was the official trilingual website of the Ukrainian presidency, which posted a transcript of his defiant television appearance. But, by evening, the text had appeared only in Ukrainian and Russian, suggesting that his English translator had perhaps jumped ship. In the statement, the party said it strongly condemned what it called “criminal decrees,” which resulted in “human casualties, emptied coffers, huge debts and shame in the eyes of the Ukrainian people and the whole world.”
The former nerve center of Mr. Yanukovych’s power, the huge compound of the presidential administration, just a few hundred yards from Independence Square in Kiev, was empty Saturday aside from protesters who patrolled its courtyard and blocked off a nearby street to prevent residents swarming into the building. Ukrainian flags flying outside had all been lowered to half-mast, in honor of those killed by police officers and snipers on Thursday. “All attempts to convince the president to act differently were ignored,” the statement said. “The party was virtually the hostage of one corrupt family.”
Mr. Yanukovych said in his television appearance that he would be traveling to the southeastern part of Ukraine to talk to his supporters — a plan that carried potentially ominous overtones, in that the southeast is the location of the Crimea, the historically Russian section of the country that is the site of a Russian naval base. While Parliament has dismissed a number of senior officials, the defense minister, Pavlo Lebedev told Ukraine’s Channel 24 that he intended to remain in his post, and the military issued statements that seemed to offer assurance that no steps would be taken to interfere with the provisional government.
The president’s departure from Kiev, just a day after a peace deal with the opposition that he had hoped would keep him in office until at least December, capped three months of streets protests and a week of frenzied violence in the capital that left more than 80 protesters dead. It turned what began in November as a street protest driven by pro-Europe chants and nationalist songs into a momentous but still ill-defined revolution. A statement posted on the Defense Ministry website on Saturday, after Mr. Yanukovych’s departure, and attributed to the ministry and the military, reaffirmed the military’s commitment to the Constitution and expressed sorrow over the deaths in Kiev last week.
With nobody clearly in charge, other than the so far remarkably disciplined fighting squads, lieutenants of Ms. Tymoshenko moved to fill the power vacuum. With Oleksandr V. Turchynov, a former acting prime minister and close ally of Ms. Tymoshenko, presiding over the Parliament, her Fatherland party seemed to be in charge, at least temporarily. “Please be assured that the Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot and will not be involved in any political conflict,” the statement said.
With a veto-proof majority of more than 300 of the 450 seats, Mr. Turchynov guided the Parliament through the constitutional process of declaring the president unable to fulfill his duties and setting a date for new elections. In a separate statement, the military chief of staff, Yuriy Ilyin, who was just recently appointed by Mr. Yanukovych, said, “As an officer I see no other way than to serve the Ukrainian people honestly and assure that I have not and won’t give any criminal orders.”
But with Mr. Yanukovych roaming around eastern Ukraine trying to rally support and with the economy in free fall, the country seemed certain to face severe new challenges in the months ahead. Adding to the combustible mix was uncertainty over the intentions of Russia, which now faces the loss of a key ally in a former Soviet republic and the prospect of a new government led by people it scorned as terrorists and fascists in what it considers a critical part of its own sphere of influence. It is not yet clear whether Ukrainians in the southern and eastern regions of the country, which host the bulk of the country’s industrial infrastructure as well as the heaviest concentration of pro-Russian sentiment, would resist the change of government in Kiev. In several cities, including Donetsk and Kharkiv, pro-Russian demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday, and there have been scattered reports of clashes between pro-Russian Ukrainians and supporters of the protests in Kiev.
It was possibly with the Kremlin in mind that the White House issued a statement Saturday welcoming the changes and stressing that, “The unshakable principle guiding events must be that the people of Ukraine determine their own future.” Several lawmakers expressed rising alarm over Ukraine’s perilous economic situation. The Russian government in December had come to Mr. Yanukovych’s rescue with a $15 billion bailout and an offer of cheaper prices on natural gas.
American officials said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia told President Obama in a telephone call on Friday that he would work toward resolving the crisis, but his foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, did not sound as conciliatory. In a telephone call, he told the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland, who helped mediate a short-lived peace deal agreed on Friday, that opposition leaders who signed the accord with Mr. Yanukovych had reneged on their commitments and were “following the lead of armed extremists and pogromists, whose actions pose a direct threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty and constitutional order.” A $2 billion installment of that aid was canceled as part of a deal reached on Friday between Mr. Yanukovych and opposition leaders. Western officials have said they hope to offer assistance, but it is unclear how quickly that help might arrive.
On Saturday afternoon, Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke with Mr. Lavrov. After the call, the two sides issued somewhat different accounts of the conversation. Among the reasons Mr. Yanukovych turned away from signing political and trade accords with Europe in November was his unwillingness to carry out painful austerity measures and other reforms that had been demanded by the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a large assistance package.
According to a statement from the Russian foreign ministry, Mr. Lavrov complained that the political agreement in Ukraine had been “sharply degraded” by the political opposition there. On Sunday, the Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, said that there was concern about the political instability in Ukraine and that the fund could only provide assistance in response to a formal request.
Providing the American account of the call, a senior State Department official said that Mr. Kerry “noted the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in Kiev after the unexpected departure of President Yanukovych, and the political steps taken by the duly elected Rada under the leadership of its new speaker.” Speaking at the end of a meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Sydney, Australia, Ms. Lagarde said, “If the Ukrainian authorities were to ask for I.M.F. support, whether it is policy advice, whether it is financial support together with economic reform discussions, we would be ready to do that.”
The two diplomats agreed the situation should resolved without violence, according to the State Department. Mr. Kerry also “expressed the importance of encouraging Ukraine to move forward on a path towards constitutional change, de-escalation, the creation of a coalition government, early elections and rejection of violence,” the State Department official added. But, she said, “We need to have somebody to talk to because any discussion takes two.”
Russia’s focus on the inviolability of Friday’s accord, however, marks an abrupt change of direction as it had earlier distanced itself from the deal, with its envoy to the Ukraine negotiations refusing to join European diplomats in signing off on the accord. Ms. Lagarde added that an economic program to help Ukraine had to be “owned by the authorities, by the people, because at the end of the day it will be the future of the Ukrainian economy.”
Anticipating the potential troubles, one of the president’s oldest and most stalwart allies, the billionaire businessman Rinat Akhmetov, issued a statement stressing the need to keep Ukraine “united,” an apparent rebuff to any schemes to establish a new power center in the east. The I.M.F. has extended help to Ukraine in the past, but has expressed reluctance to do so again because the Ukrainian government repeatedly failed to carry out agreed-upon reforms.
“My position remains unchanged: I am for a strong, independent and united Ukraine,” said Mr. Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man. “Today I place a special focus on the word ‘united’ as this has never been more important.” Mr. Akhmetov and most other wealthy businessmen, who are known as oligarchs, have infuriated protesters by declining throughout months of protest to come out clearly against the president. The reassertion of state ownership over the presidential palace on Sunday was a highly symbolic action by Parliament to show that lawmakers shared the public’s rage against Mr. Yanukovych, who appeared briefly on television on Saturday and insisted that he was still the duly elected president.
Having amassed huge wealth under a deeply corrupt system headed by Mr. Yanukovych since his election in 2010, Ukraine’s oligarchs could now face an angry backlash from the street. That could well drag in Oleksandr Yanukovych, the president’s dentist-turned-businessman son, who is said to have amassed a fortune approaching $200 million since his father took office. After the residence, which is in a national park, was abandoned by Mr. Yanukovych and then opened to the Ukrainian public, visitors reacted with outrage and dismay at the astonishing display of wealth and excess, including separate collections of modern and antique cars and a private zoo.
The economy will remain the greatest problem facing the country, once the leadership questions are settled. The International Monetary Fund remains a potential source of financing to replace the $15 billion that Russia had made available before the protests. But that comes with an insistence on austerity and economic changes that will inflict considerable pain, and it is unclear if Europe or the United States will be willing to do more. The vote to reclaim the palace was 323 to 0, with at least 106 lawmakers absent, most of them members of Mr. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, which had controlled Parliament until its leaders fled on Saturday and then were dismissed from their posts in similarly lopsided votes.
“Nobody wants to end up owning all the problems that Ukraine faces,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, “the country is bankrupt, it has a terrible, broken system of government and insane levels of corruption.” In a series of votes on Sunday, the Parliament dismissed the foreign minister, Leonid Kozhara; the education minister, Dmytro Tabachnyk, and the health minister, Raisa Bogatyrova.
Parliament, led by Speaker Turchynov, has been moving swiftly to rebuild the government. Arsen Avakov, who was installed by Parliament on Saturday as interior minister, told reporters on Sunday that an investigation had been opened into 30 or more officials who may have been responsible for the violence last week in which more than 70 people were killed on the streets of Kiev. Throughout central Kiev on Sunday people continued to lay flowers and place candles at memorials to the dead demonstrators.
Mr. Avakov also said that border guards on Saturday had prevented the departure of a plane in eastern Ukraine with Mr. Yanukovych aboard.
During her time in government, Ms. Tymoshenko had also maintained a working relationship with Russia, which many Ukrainians blame for pressing Mr. Yanukovych into backing away from sweeping political and free trade agreements with the European Union, which first set off Ukraine’s civil unrest in November.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had once said that Ms. Tymoshenko was welcome to travel to Russia from prison for medical treatment. Mr. Shevchenko, of the Fatherland Party, said that Ms. Tymoshenko had strongly advocated Ukraine’s integration with Europe and would sign the accords that Mr. Yanukovych scuttled. “I know if Yulia goes back to the government or becomes president, she will definitely be pro-Western,” he said.
Mr. Putin spoke with Ms. Merkel by telephone on Sunday about the situation in Ukraine. According to a statement on the chancellor’s website, both leaders agreed that Ukraine’s “territorial integrity must be respected.”
Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser, said Sunday that the United States was prepared to work with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, as well as Russia, to shore up Ukraine’s nascent government. Speaking on the NBC News program “Meet the Press,” Ms. Rice said that the United States hoped to see constitutional change and democratic elections in Ukraine “in very short order,” and she added that it “would be a grave mistake” for Russia to interfere militarily.
“It’s not in the interests of Ukraine or of Russia or of Europe or of the United States to see the country split,” she said. “It’s in nobody’s interest to see violence return.”