Ukraine President Announces early Elections, Promises Coalition Government after clashes.

[kn_andre]

Protesters wait in Independence Square for news of the deal

Protesters at a barricade in the square

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Friday announced early presidential elections and promised to bring opposition members into the government in a bid to defuse a deep crisis in which scores have been killed and hundreds injured.

He gave no time frame, however, and it's unclear whether his belated concessions will be enough to hold off protesters who have occupied a piece of Kiev and government buildings around the country in a nationwide battle over the identity of their country.

There was no immediate comment from opposition leaders, who were meeting among themselves after a marathon night of meetings with European diplomats.

The U.S., Russia and European Union are deeply concerned about the future of Ukraine, a nation of 46 million that has divided loyalties between Russia and the West. Shots rang out again Friday near the protesters' camp in Kiev, a day after the deadliest violence in Ukraine's post-Soviet history. It is unclear whether anyone was hurt or injured in Friday's incident.

"As the president of Ukraine and the guarantor of the Constitution, today I am fulfilling my duty before the people, before Ukraine and before God in the name of saving the nation, in the name of preserving people's lives, in the name of peace and calm of our land," the president said in a statement on his website. Yanukovych also promised constitutional reforms trimming presidential powers, a key demand of protesters.

The opposition has rejected similar invitations to join the government in the past, saying that constitutional reform giving parliament greater powers has to be passed first. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who is involved in the negotiations in Kiev, called for calm. He tweeted that it's a "delicate moment for the settlement and all must remember you don't get 100 percent in a compromise."

All this was not enough for some protesters, who accused the president of trying to buy time and want him out immediately.

Yanukovych, who triggered the protests in November by aborting a pact with the European Union in favor of close ties with Russia, has refused to step down.

"We haven't achieved anything yet, neither Europe, nor freedom, nor new leadership. We will stop our fight only after Yanukovych resigns. He has blood on his hands," said protester Stepan Rodich, speaking at the Independence Square known as Maidan on Friday. Several regions in the west of the country are in open revolt against the central government, while many in eastern Ukraine back the president and favor strong ties with Russia, their former Soviet ruler.

Source : http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/02/21/ukraine-presidency-crisis-deal-agreed

[jackieo]

And once again..... a dose of reality -

Open your eyes & ears, people, and open your mind to the reality, had to swallow, but wake up!

Alex Jones ; You Tube ~ Videos ~ Page

(Info below is from the video posting on You Tube, including sources of material in the video)

Published on Feb 20, 2014

Revolutionary actions that are happening in the Ukraine is a clear, step by step, lesson in the globalists playbook. Its up to us to not be fooled by this age old ploy. Its up to us to be aware that this is the strategy of toppling sovereign governments by staging violent uprising for the alleged cause of democracy, and usually in the of America.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/vi...
http://www.infowars.com/obama-sets-a-...
http://www.infowars.com/exposed-ukrai...

Edited February 21, 2014 by jackieo

[kn_andre]

Déjà vu ...............................

[jackieo]

Déjà vu ...............................

Problem?

It is my responsibility as a member of this community, and a human being who cares about my friends, to provide other members of this community the true facts of reality, and not just copy and paste the "news item" created by the propagandist govt run media.

Some of our members dont really know whats REALLY happening around them and the truth needs to be said.

When this story hit the other nite i thought i was covering a natural "grass roots" movement - nothing could be further from the truth- These protesters are bought-paid-for- and bused in with backpacks, weapons and ready to fight-

Fight what?

Ukraine is not AN evil oppressionist regime, however the government that the powerful cabal is using these paid protesters to incite, and replace, WILL BE OPPRESSIONIST! and communist!!

The Ukraine citizens are pawns caught in a global-ist regime-change chess game.

I cannot say it any more simply than that.

Would you like a Hot Apple Pie to go with your Happy Meal?

Thank You, Drive Thru! And Have a Positive Nice Day! :)

Edited February 21, 2014 by jackieo

[jackieo]

Are there any Ukraine members here at Nsane?

Id be curious to know their thoughts on this whole matter.

Edited February 21, 2014 by jackieo

[donkey-girl]

Edited February 21, 2014 by donkey-girl

[jackieo]

(images captured , editied with Winsnap)

Edited February 21, 2014 by jackieo

[donkey-girl]

jackieo

Thanks for advise, but I know that i should do so, It was greyed out on my phone when posted, now I,m home and wanted change with explorer wich I couldnt, used now Firefos and done :)

By the way I,m Ukrainan by birth :)

Edited February 21, 2014 by donkey-girl

[jackieo]

jackieo

Thanks for advise, but I know that i should do so, It was greyed out on my phone when posted, now I,m home and wanted change with explorer wich I couldnt, used now Firefos and done :)

By the way I,m Ukrainan by birth :)

oh, I dont get the cartoon, I only speak english... you read this forum from a phone wow had no idea ppl even did that.

( I dont have a smart phone, I do this all on my laptop)

edit : okay google translate

vous ne pouvez pas faire moins de bruit on n'arrive pas à dormir

you can not make less noise you can not sleep

so its like HEY KEEP IT DOWN WE'RE TRYIN TO SLEEP IN HERE!

So in essence, France says to Ukraine - you're making too much noise !

Edited February 21, 2014 by jackieo

[donkey-girl]

jackieo

Thanks for advise, but I know that i should do so, It was greyed out on my phone when posted, now I,m home and wanted change with explorer wich I couldnt, used now Firefos and done :)

By the way I,m Ukrainan by birth :)

oh, I dont get the cartoon, I only speak english... you read this forum from a phone wow had no idea ppl even did that.

( I dont have a smart phone, I do this all on my laptop)

edit : okay google translate

vous ne pouvez pas faire moins de bruit on n'arrive pas à dormir

you can not make less noise you can not sleep

so its like HEY KEEP IT DOWN WE'RE TRYIN TO SLEEP IN HERE!

So in essence, France says to Ukraine - you're making too much noise !

First, yes was using phone some time to read here on board, and the same time uploading some Photo from a ceremoni Ukrainan people here maked in Cobenhagen for show our suport to Ukrainan people.

And second the Photo shall be understand like this Eu Union complain over Ukraines noise and now they have to come to make Things clean up for you. All ment as a Joke :)

[jackieo]

ahh the EU ok im starting to understand.... This whole globalist think mentality has me astounded...I could go on and on, but I already have :)

[kn_andre]

Ukraine peace Deal Halts Violence but Crowds still Angry

(Reuters) - A breakthrough peace deal for Ukraine halted two days of violence that had turned the center of the capital into a war zone and killed 77 people, bringing sweeping political change that met many demands of the pro-European opposition.

Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich agreed to give up powers, hold early elections and form a government of national unity. Parliament voted for changes to the legal code that could see the release of Yanukovich's jailed rival, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

By nightfall, opposition leaders who signed the deal were addressing peaceful crowds from a stage in Independence Square, which for the previous 48 hours had been an inferno of blazing barricades and protesters were shot dead by police snipers.

Although the flames were out, the crowd was still defiant, holding aloft open coffins of slain demonstrators and making speeches denouncing the opposition leaders for shaking hands with Yanukovich.

The Ukraine crisis began with protests in November after Yanukovich turned his back on a far-reaching economic deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia instead.

If it holds, the deal hammered out with the mediation efforts of the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland, would mark a victory for Europe in a tug-of-war with Moscow for influence in the divided ex-Soviet state of 46 million people.

But it remains to be seen whether violence can be halted and whether a lurch away from Moscow will cost Ukraine a $15 billion Russian financial lifeline it needs to stave off bankruptcy.

"There are no steps that we should not take to restore peace in Ukraine," Yanukovich said in announcing his concessions before the agreement was signed. "I announce that I am initiating early elections."

Within hours, parliament voted to revert to a previous constitution slashing Yanukovich's powers, sacked his interior minister blamed for this week's bloodshed and paved the way for Tymoshenko's release.

EU leaders and the White House praised the deal but Moscow made grudging comments that fell short of endorsing it. The European foreign ministers signed the document as witnesses, but a Russian envoy did not.

The envoy, Vladimir Lukin, acknowledged Moscow had fallen behind the EU in diplomacy: "The EU representatives were in their own way trying to be useful, they started the talks.

"We joined the talks later, which wasn't very right. One should have agreed on the format of the talks right from the start," Lukin was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

Yanukovich, 63, a burly former Soviet regional transport official with two convictions for assault, did not smile during a signing ceremony at the presidential headquarters. Opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, a retired world boxing champion, switched his nameplate to avoid sitting next to the president.

'YOU'LL ALL BE DEAD'

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski described the agreement as a "good compromise for Ukraine". It "gives peace a chance. Opens the way for reform and to Europe," he tweeted.

It fell to Sikorski to sell the deal to the skeptical opposition. ITN video filmed outside a meeting room during a break in the talks showed him pleading with opposition delegates to accept it: "If you don't support this, you'll have martial law, you'll have the army, you'll all be dead."

Anti-government protesters remained encamped in Independence Square, known as the Maidan or "Euro-Maidan", and made clear their dissatisfaction at a deal that would leave Yanukovich in power until the early elections later this year.

Shortly after the signing ceremony, an open coffin carrying one of the dead from Thursday's violence was borne across the square as a bare-chested drummer beat out a funeral tattoo with people chanting "Heroes don't die! Bandits out!"

Some car horns hooted and fireworks were lit to celebrate the accord, but many activists were suspicious, noting that Yanukovich had cut deals before and was still in office.

When the three opposition politicians who signed the deal addressed the crowd in the evening, another coffin carrying a victim was carried through the crowd to the stage. After another open coffin was held aloft by the crowd, a protester wearing battle-fatigues leapt to the microphone.

"My comrade was shot and our leaders shake the hand of a murderer. It's a disgrace!" he said to roars of approval. "If it is not announced by 10:00 tomorrow that Yanukovich is gone, we're going to attack with weapons."

Earlier Klitschko drew cat-calls and derisive whistling from the crowd when he praised as "very important" their political achievements during the day. He later apologized for shaking Yanukovich's hand, telling the crowd: "If I offended anyone, I ask their forgiveness."

That was not enough for 35-year-old Volodymir from the western city of Lviv near the Polish border: "We won't follow Klitschko and the rest of them. They shook hands with a gangster and danced with the devil."

SET-BACK FOR PUTIN

The week's violence was by far the worst to hit Ukraine since it emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine, with borders drawn up by Bolshevik commissars, has faced an identity crisis since independence. It fuses territory that was mostly part of Russia since the Middle Ages with provinces that were parts of Poland and Austria until they were annexed by the Soviets in the 20th century.

In the country's east, most people speak Russian. In the west, most speak Ukrainian and many despise Moscow. Successive governments have sought closer ties with the European Union, but have been unable to wean their heavy Soviet-era industry from dependence on cheap Russian gas.

The past week saw the country on the verge of splitting, with central authority vanishing altogether in the west, where anti-Russian demonstrators seized government buildings and police fled. Deaths in the capital cost Yanukovich support of wealthy industrialists who previously backed him.

Many of those killed in the square were shot in the head and neck, apparently by snipers on rooftops. But Yanukovich proved unable to deploy enough loyal police to seize and hold the center of the capital. Many police were among the dead.

If fully implemented, the deal would be a setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had made tying Ukraine into a Moscow-led Eurasian Union a cornerstone of his efforts to reunite as much as possible of the former Soviet Union.

Moscow had maintained that the protesters were terrorists and coup plotters, had denounced the West for supporting them and encouraged Yanukovich to crush them.

"This is not democracy, this is anarchy and chaos. And we'll see what comes out of it," Alexei Pushkov, head of Russia's State Duma foreign affairs committee and a member of Putin's United Russia party said after the deal was signed, though he said the pact would be positive if it ended violence.

Washington took a back seat in the final phase of negotiations, its absence noteworthy after a senior U.S. official was recorded using an expletive to disparage EU diplomacy on an unsecured telephone line last month.

The outlook for Ukraine's economy is dire and Russia has not made clear whether it will still pay the promised $15 billion in aid. Ukraine cancelled a planned issue of 5-year Eurobonds worth $2 billion, it told the Irish Stock Exchange where the debt would have been listed. Kiev had hoped Russia would buy the bonds to help it stave off bankruptcy.

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/22/us-ukraine-idUSBREA1G0OU20140222

[kn_andre]

Breaking News 22 Feb 2014 : https://www.breakingnews.com/

KYIV, KYIV CITY MUNICIPALITY, UA

8m

"All security entrances to the building are in opposition hands" - @bishopk in #Kiev at #Ukraine presidential complex http://t.co/er1OKDfYKy - @BBCBreaking

Source : http://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/437140583816388608

KYIV, KYIV CITY MUNICIPALITY, UA

22m

Speaker of #Ukraine's parliament, Volodymyr Rybak, has resigned http://t.co/1BK3y6VyeM #Kiev - @BBCBreaking

see original on twitter.com

Source : http://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/437139733207326720

YIV, KYIV CITY MUNICIPALITY, UA

1h

LATEST #Kiev: Presidential building seems empty, gates locked, riot police no longer there, protesters in balaclavas gathering via @_DuncanC - @BBCBreaking

see original on twitter.com

Source : http://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/437128686136205312

UKRAINE

1h

No police presence outside offices of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, says BBC correspondent Duncan Crawford http://t.co/VBcwio6vQ9 - @BBCBreaking

see original on twitter.com

Source : http://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/437126408499113984

[donkey-girl]

(Reuters) - Protesters seized the Kiev office of President Viktor Yanukovich on Saturday and the opposition demanded a new election be held by May, as the pro-Russian leader's grip on power rapidly eroded following bloodshed in the capital.

Anti-government demonstrators entered Yanukovich's compound in the capital and were controlling the entrance, a Reuters reporter said at the scene. Security guards were present inside the building but were not trying to expel the protesters.

The president's residence outside the capital appeared to have been abandoned. Local media said protesters entered the sprawling grounds but it was unclear whether they were inside the building. Interfax said some security guards were present.

A security source said the president was still in Ukraine but was unable to confirm whether he was in Kiev.

Yanukovich, who enraged much of the population by turning away from the European Union to build closer ties with Russia three months ago, made sweeping concessions in a deal brokered by European diplomats on Friday after days of violence that killed 77 people, with central Kiev resembling a war zone.

But the deal, which called for early elections by the end of the year, was not enough to satisfy demonstrators, who want him out immediately after bloodshed that saw his police snipers shooting from rooftops.

Parliament has quickly acted to implement the deal, voting to restore a constitution that curbs the president's powers and to change the legal code possibly allowing his arch-adversary, jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, to go free.

The speaker of parliament, a Yanukovich loyalist, resigned and parliament on Saturday elected Oleksander Turchynov, a close ally of Tymoshenko, as his replacement.

Events were moving at a rapid pace that could see a decisive shift in the future of a country of 46 million people away from Moscow's orbit and closer to the West, although Ukraine is near bankruptcy and depends on Russian aid to pay its debt.

"Today he (Yanukovich) left the capital," opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, a retired world heavyweight boxing champion, told an emergency session of parliament debating an opposition motion calling on the president to resign.

"Millions of Ukrainians see only one choice - early presidential and parliamentary elections." Klitschko then tweeted that an election should be held no later than May 25.

The senior security source said of Yanukovich: "Everything's ok with him ... He is in Ukraine." Asked whether the leader was in Kiev, the source replied: "I cannot say."

The UNIAN news agency cited Anna Herman, a lawmaker close to Yanukovich, as saying the president was in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

At the president's office in the capital, Ostap Kryvdyk, who described himself as a protest commander, said some protesters had entered the offices but there was no looting.

"We will guard the building until the next president comes," he told Reuters. "Yanukovich will never be back."

In a sign of the quick transformation, the interior ministry responsible for the police appeared to swing behind the protests. It said it served "exclusively the Ukrainian people and fully shares their strong desire for speedy change."

Parliament voted on Friday to dismiss Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko, a Yanukovich loyalist blamed by the opposition for the bloodshed.

The ministry urged citizens to unite "in the creation of a truly independent, democratic and just European country".

Yanukovich's broad concessions on Friday brought an end to 48 hours of violence that had turned the centre of Kiev into an inferno of blazing barricades. Without enough loyal police to restore order, the authorities resorted to placing snipers on rooftops who shot demonstrators in the head and neck.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland negotiated the concessions from Yanukovich, in what the Kremlin's envoy acknowledged as superior diplomacy.

"The EU representatives were in their own way trying to be useful, they started the talks," said Russian envoy Vladimir Lukin. "We joined the talks later, which wasn't very right. One should have agreed on the format of the talks right from the start," Lukin was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

Yanukovich, 63, a burly former Soviet regional transport official with two convictions for assault, did not smile during a signing ceremony at the presidential headquarters on Friday.

"YOU'LL ALL BE DEAD"

It took hard lobbying to persuade the opposition to accept the deal, and crowds in the streets made clear they were not satisfied with an arrangement that would leave Yanukovich in power. Video filmed outside a meeting room during a break in the talks showed Polish Foreign Minister Vladislaw Sikorski pleading with opposition delegates: "If you don't support this, you'll have martial law, you'll have the army, you'll all be dead."

Anti-government protesters remained encamped in Independence Square, known as the Maidan or "Euro-Maidan", through the night. They held aloft coffins of slain comrades and denounced opposition leaders for shaking Yanukovich's hand.

The week's violence was by far the worst to hit Ukraine since it emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union.

With borders drawn up by Bolshevik commissars, Ukraine has faced an identity crisis since independence. It fuses territory that was mostly part of Russia since the Middle Ages with provinces that were parts of Poland and Austria until they were annexed by the Soviets in the 20th century.

In the country's east, most people speak Russian. In the west, most speak Ukrainian and many despise Moscow. Successive governments have sought closer relations with the European Union, but have been unable to wean their heavy Soviet-era industry from dependence on cheap Russian gas.

The past week saw the country on the verge of splitting, with central authority vanishing altogether in the west, where anti-Russian demonstrators seized government buildings and police fled. Deaths in the capital cost Yanukovich support of wealthy industrialists who previously backed him.

Yanukovich's fall would be a setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had made tying Ukraine into a Moscow-led Eurasian Union a cornerstone of his efforts to reunite as much as possible of the former Soviet Union.

Moscow had maintained that the protesters were terrorists and coup plotters, had denounced the West for supporting them and encouraged Yanukovich to crush them.

"This is not democracy, this is anarchy and chaos. And we'll see what comes out of it," Alexei Pushkov, head of Russia's State Duma foreign affairs committee and a member of Putin's United Russia party said after the deal was signed, though he said the pact would be positive if it ended violence.

Washington took a back seat in the final phase of negotiations, its absence noteworthy after a senior U.S. official was recorded using an expletive to disparage EU diplomacy on an unsecured telephone line last month.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Putin by phone.

The outlook for Ukraine's economy is dire and Russia has not made clear whether it will still pay the promised $15 billion in aid. Ukraine cancelled a planned issue of 5-year Eurobonds worth $2 billion on Thursday. Kiev had hoped Russia would buy the bonds to help it stave off bankruptcy.

(Additional reporting by Matt Robinson and Richard Balmforth; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/ ... OU20140222

[kn_andre]

Breaking News - http://www.breakingnews.com

UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT, OPPOSITION LEADERS SIGN PEACE DEAL

2h

Ukrainian President Yanukovych's adviser tells @KyivPostthat he is in Kharkiv, but will not take part in separatist gathering - @ChristopherJM

see original on twitter.com

Source : http://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/437155023483858944

UKRAINE

52m

Ukrainian lawmakers elect Oleksandr Turchynov, ally of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, as new parliamentary speaker - @SkyNewsBreak, @Reuters

see original on twitter.com

Source : https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/437175490097721344

KYIV, KYIV CITY MUNICIPALITY, UA

8m

Parliament in Ukraine elect opposition lawmaker Arsen Avakov as interior minister until formation of new government - @Reuters

read more on trust.org

Source : http://www.trust.org/item/20140222110307-8njd8

KYIV, KYIV CITY MUNICIPALITY, UA

4m

Ukraine parliament votes to speed up release of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, without president's endorsement - @ChristopherJM, @Reuters

see original on twitter.com

Source : https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/437188658782044160

[jackieo]

Twitter is not a realiable news source - i could go on twitter and say "the sky is falling"

but everyone points at it like "it is"

Im not a member of twitter by the way, just saying...

Edited February 22, 2014 by jackieo

[mazigh]

jackieo

Thanks for advise, but I know that i should do so, It was greyed out on my phone when posted, now I,m home and wanted change with explorer wich I couldnt, used now Firefos and done :)

By the way I,m Ukrainan by birth :)

oh, I dont get the cartoon, I only speak english... you read this forum from a phone wow had no idea ppl even did that.

( I dont have a smart phone, I do this all on my laptop)

edit : okay google translate

vous ne pouvez pas faire moins de bruit on n'arrive pas à dormir

you can not make less noise you can not sleep

so its like HEY KEEP IT DOWN WE'RE TRYIN TO SLEEP IN HERE!

So in essence, France says to Ukraine - you're making too much noise !

It means: You can't make less noise?, We are not able to sleep!, EU telling Yanukovych :D

[jackieo]

thank you :)

[kn_andre]

Photo: AP Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko addresses the crowd in central Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Hours after being released from prison, former Ukrainian prime minister and opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko praised the demonstrators killed in violence this week as heroes.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The whereabouts of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych were unclear on Sunday, after he left the capital and his archfoe Yulia Tymoshenko was freed from prison and returned to Kiev to address a massive, adoring crowd. A plane with Yanukovych onboard was denied permission to take off Saturday evening from Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine that is the president's base of support the State Border Guard Service said. The president's spokesman said Sunday morning that even he does not know where Yanukovych is. The Kiev protest camp at the center of the anti-Yanukovych movement filled with more and more dedicated demonstrators Sunday morning setting up new tents after a day that saw a stunning reversal of fortune in a political standoff that has left scores dead and worried the United States, Europe and Russia.

Ukraine is deeply divided between eastern regions that are largely pro-Russian and western areas that widely detest Yanukovych and long for closer ties with the European Union. Yanukovych's shelving of an agreement with the EU in November set off the wave of protests, but they quickly expanded their grievances to corruption, human rights abuses and calls for Yanukovych's resignation. "We need to catch and punish those with blood on their hands," Artyom Zhilyansky, a 45-year-old engineer on Independence Square on Sunday, referring to those killed in clashes with police last week. He and other protesters called for law enforcement chiefs to be held accountable and Yanukovych put on trial. The newly emboldened parliament, in a special session Sunday, tried to work out a coalition government. But the legitimacy of the parliament's flurry of decisions in recent days — including a vote Saturday to remove Yanukovych from the presidency — was under question.

The votes are based on a decision Friday to return to a 10-year-old constitution that grants parliament greater powers. Yanukovych, however, has not signed that decision into law, and said Saturday that the parliament is now acting illegally. The political crisis in the nation of 46 million has changed with blinding speed repeatedly in the past week. First there were signs that tensions were easing, followed by horrifying violence and then a deal signed under Western pressure that aimed to resolve the conflict but left the unity of the country in question. Protester self-defense units who have taken control of the capital peacefully changed shifts Sunday. Helmeted and wearing makeshift shields, they have replaced police guarding the president's administration and parliament, and have sought to stop radical forces from inflicting damage or unleashing violence. Thousands of curious and contemptuous Ukrainians roamed the suddenly open grounds of the lavish compound outside Kiev where Yanukovych was believed to live. Parliament, which he controlled last week but is now turned against him, voted to remove him and set elections for May 25.

But Yanukovych said in a televised address that he now regards the parliament as illegitimate and he won't respect its decisions. Tymoshenko, whose diadem of blond peasant braids and stirring rhetoric attracted world attention in the 2004 Orange Revolution, was both sad and excited as she spoke to a crowd of about 50,000 on Kiev's Independence Square, where a sprawling protest tent camp was set up in December. Sitting in a wheelchair because of a back problem aggravated during imprisonment, her voice cracked and her face was careworn. But her words were vivid, praising the protesters who were killed this week in clashes with police that included sniper fire and entreating the living to keep the camp going. "You are heroes, you are the best thing in Ukraine!" she said of the victims. The Health Ministry said the death toll in clashes between protesters and police that included sniper attacks had reached 82 over the last week. The protesters put that figure at over 100.

And she urged the demonstrators not to yield their encampment in the square, known in Ukrainian as the Maidan. "In no case do you have the right to leave the Maidan until you have concluded everything that you planned to do," she said. The crowd was thrilled. "We missed Yulia and her fire so much," said demonstrator Yuliya Sulchanik. Minutes after her release, Tymoshenko said she plans to run for president, and Sulchanik said "Yulia will be the next president — she deserves it." Yanukovych's authority in Kiev appeared to be eroding by the hour and suspicions mounted that he was trying to get out o of the country. His support base crumbled further as a leading governor and a mayor from the eastern city of Kharkiv fled to Russia. A plane carrying Yanukovych tried to take off Saturday evening from the eastern city of Donetsk but didn't have the proper documentation so was turned away, Oleh Slobodyan of the State Border Guard service said Sunday. The president was driven off in a car from the airport, he said. Slobodyan said there has been no record of Yanukovych leaving Ukraine by land, and it was not clear where the plane was headed.

Yanukovych, who spoke on television Saturday in Kharkiv, accused his opponents of trying to overthrow the government. "Everything that is happening today is, to a greater degree, vandalism and banditry and a coup d'etat," he said. "I will do everything to protect my country from breakup, to stop bloodshed." The conviction of Tymoshenko was one of the underlying issues driving the protests. After the 2004 Orange Revolution helped bring Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency, Tymoshenko became prime minister. But when Yanukovych won the 2010 election, Tymoshenko was arrested and put on trial for abuse of office, an action widely seen as political revenge. EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton welcomed the release of Tymoshenko as "an important step forward in view of addressing concerns regarding selective justice in the country." Russia came out Saturday firmly against the peace deal, saying the opposition isn't holding up its end of the agreement, which calls for protesters to surrender arms and abandon their tent camps. Tymoshenko's entreaty is likely to make the latter condition slow to be fulfilled.

European officials urged calm. Ukraine's defense and military officials also called for Ukrainians to stay peaceful but did not clearly come on the side of the president or opposition. The past week has seen the worst violence in Ukraine since the breakup of the Soviet Union a quarter-century ago. At Independence Square Saturday, protesters heaped flowers on the coffins of the dead.

"These are heroes of Ukraine who gave their lives so that we could live in a different country without Yanukovych," said protester Viktor Fedoruk, 32. "Their names will be written in golden letters in the history of Ukraine."

Source : https://www.mail.com/news/world/2671254-ukraine-presidents-whereabouts-unknown.html#.7518-stage-hero1-4