Ukraine’s main opposition parties yesterday said they were ready to continue talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s government, but warned that protesters’ patience could “snap” at any moment.
Opposition leaders said in a joint statement that they were ready to negotiate “despite an attempt by the authorities to abandon the negotiations and declare a state of emergency.”
They were referring to Ukrainian Minister of Justice Minister Elena Lukash’s threat yesterday to call a state of emergency unless protesters leave her ministry building, which they occupied during the night.
Photo: Reuters
Lukash did not specify a deadline for leaving.
The seizure of the building early yesterday underlined how anti-government demonstrators are increasingly willing to take dramatic action as they push for the president’s resignation and other concessions. Protesters now occupy four sizable buildings in downtown Kiev, including the city hall.
Imposing a state of emergency likely would cause anger to spike among protesters, who have clashed with police repeatedly over the past week, in fighting that has left three protesters dead.
In a televised statement, Lukash said that the “so-called protesters’’ seized the building as ministry employees were working on measures to grant amnesty to protesters and to make changes in the constitution to return the country to a system where the prime minister’s powers are stronger.
Ukraine plunged into its two-month political crisis after Yanukovych suddenly refused in November last year to sign a landmark political and trade deal with the EU that was years in the making.
He turned instead to the country’s former master, Russia, infuriating pro-EU Ukrainians.
Yanukovych on Saturday offered the prime minister’s post to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, one of the opposition’s most prominent leaders. Yatsenyuk, while not flatly rejecting the offer, said protests would continue and that a special session of parliament called for today would be “judgement day.’’
It is not clear if constitutional changes will be on the agenda for that session, but granting more power to the prime minister could both sweeten the offer and allow Yanukovych to portray himself as seeking genuine compromise.
Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, the current head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE), yesterday said he had offered mediation, but was still waiting for word from Kiev.
“I met [Ukrainian] Prime Minister [Mykola] Azarov on Friday in Davos [Switzerland] in my capacity as OSCE head,” Burkhalter told reporters in Warsaw, Poland, at a joint press conference with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski.
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