KIEV: Ukrainian lawmakers failed to agree on curbing the president’s powers at a stormy debate yesterday as international pressure grew for ending the two-month crisis with the expected arrival of the EU foreign policy chief.
Catherine Ashton was due to meet opposition leaders for dinner in Kiev yesterday and President Viktor Yanukovich today to discuss plans for financial aid from Brussels and Washington in exchange for democratic reforms.
Ukraine’s protests erupted in November after Yanukovich rejected a key EU pact in favour of closer ties with Moscow, and the turmoil has now become an all-out movement to oust him.
Demands of pro-EU protest leaders include constitutional amendments that would cut presidential powers and freedom for arrested activists without conditions, but Yanukovich’s ruling Regions Party has insisted this can only happen if occupied government buildings are vacated.
In a sign that Yanukovich’s position is softening further, his personal representative in parliament Yuriy Miroshnychenko, said that the president was considering “two possible scenarios”.
“The first is the release of occupied buildings and an amnesty and the second is early elections. The amnesty is not working out,” he said, referring to the release of those arrested in past weeks.
A conditional amnesty came into force on Saturday and gives protesters 15 days to leave the buildings but the opposition has dismissed the law, saying it turns activists into “hostages”.
Protesters camped out on Kiev’s Independence Square — the hub of a movement that has spread across Ukraine — expressed mixed feelings about the possibility of Yanukovich stepping down before the end of his mandate in 2015.
“Until we see a complete change which is not just Yanukovich, people will stand here,” said Vasyl, a campaigner from Lviv in western Ukraine.
Bogdan, an activist from Kiev, said: “It would be the best way for us. A full reset of power. Both president and parliament.”
At a pro-government camp just a stone’s throw away from the protesters, 27-year-old Andriy Kucher said Yanukovich’s resignation would mean that “the military coup has been successful”.
“He was democratically elected,” Kucher said.
In parliament, world champion boxer turned protest leader Vitali Klitschko called for an “end to the dictatorship” saying Ukrainians were fed up with corruption and lawlessness.
After meeting Yanukovich yesterday, Klitschko said he had pressed him on the need for a constitutional reform to reduce presidential powers and give more clout to the legislature.
“He told me it would take between one and six months. I told him we don’t have time,” he said.
Klitschko said it would be possible to speed up the process by reverting to a previous version of the constitution with a parliamentary vote and the session was adjourned to today.
Opposition MPs chanted “Killers! Killers! Killers!” as the chief lawmaker from the Regions Party, Oleksandr Yefremov, took the floor with an emotional speech in which he blasted the “extremism” of the protesters.
Yanukovich has scrapped draconian anti-protest laws and the prime minister and the entire cabinet have resigned under opposition pressure but other demands remain unanswered.
At least two protesters and two policemen have been killed in clashes.
AFP
