We’re updating this post as the day continues.
In what could be a major move toward ending the violence in the streets of his capital, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announced Friday that he’s agreed to hold new elections, form a unity government and restore a constitution drafted in 2004.
Some details have yet to be spelled out. But the BBC sums up the news this way:
“Yanukovych has agreed to an early presidential election as part of a deal to end the long-running crisis. He said he had also agreed to a national unity government, and to make constitutional changes reducing the power of the president. The compromise came after hours of talks with the opposition leaders.
“The opposition has not spoken about the deal and it remains unclear whether protesters will back it.”
NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, who is in Kiev, tells our Newscast Desk that along with the formation of a unity government and new elections by December, Yanukovych has agreed to “constitutional changes to reduce the power of the presidency.”
But there’s “a great deal of skepticism” among protesters about the deal and it’s may not satisfy many of them, Soraya adds.
Indeed, whether the deal will resolve the crisis remains unclear. Reuters quotes one protester, Anton Solovyov, as saying he and others still want Yanukovych to resign immediately. “This is just another piece of paper,” Solovyov says. “We will not leave the barricades until Yanukovich steps down. That’s all people want.”
Still, Soraya also says it’s “amazing what has happened overnight” in Kiev, where she’s been reporting from this week. Just 24 hours earlier, as she had said on Thursday, it was “absolute chaos” in the city’s Independence Square. Clashes between security forces and protesters left dozens of people dead. More than 70 have been killed since violence erupted on Tuesday.
But by midday Friday in Kiev, as Soraya reported on Morning Edition, much of the “debris and chaos had been swept up and swept away.” One dramatic moment: the arrival of police officers from the city of Lviv. They announced they were were to support the protesters, Soraya says.
The scene is “180 degrees different,” Soraya added.
As we’ve reported before, the anti-Yanukovych protests that have been raging for weeks were sparked in part by the president’s rejection of a pending trade treaty with the European Union and his embrace of more aid from Russia. Protesters have also been drawn into the streets to demonstrate against government corruption.