KIEV, Ukraine - Ending their occupation of City Hall in Kiev, Ukrainian protesters withdrew from the large granite building Sunday - but then quickly threatened to take it back if authorities did not immediately fulfill a pledge to drop all criminal charges against political activists.
The departure from the building in the capital after more than two months eased tensions in the standoff between protesters and President Viktor Yanukovych, who set off the country’s tumultuous political crisis in November by spurning a trade deal with the European Union and tilting Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 46million people, toward Russia instead.
Occupation leader Ruslan Andriyko turned control of the building over to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a symbolic signing ceremony on the steps of the building Sunday, avoiding direct negotiations with Yanukovych and his ally, Kiev Mayor Volodymyr Makeyenko.
“This was the first part of transferring the building from the protesters to a group of international observers,” said Christian Schoenenberger, the Swiss ambassador to Ukraine and Moldova, who signed the accord on behalf of the organization.
In a statement from Brussels, Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, welcomed the evacuation of City Hall as evidence that, after weeks of demands and counterdemands by each side, “several important steps have been undertaken during the last few days to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, thus contributing to a Ukrainian way from the current political crisis.”
At the same time, however, tens of thousands of people poured into Independence Square in Kiev on Sunday to join a boisterous but peaceful anti-government rally that featured speeches denouncing Yanukovych’s “bandit regime” and calling for his swift resignation.
Yanukovych is expected to nominate a new prime minister in the near future, and Western officials have been advocating for a coalition government drawn from the ruling party and the opposition. However, opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk said he will not agree to take the post, which Yanukovych offered him last month, unless the president makes further concessions, including a constitutional overhaul that reduces presidential powers.
“I cannot be bought with posts, Mr. President. Go ahead and buy your henchmen,” Yatsenyuk told the tens of thousands of protesters who turned out for the traditional Sunday demonstration. He also said the roughly 2,000 criminal cases against protesters must be closed.
Yatsenyuk also told protesters that a march to push lawmakers to curb Yanukovych’s powers will take place after he and fellow opposition leader Vitali Klitschko return from talks today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
Yatsenyuk said he’ll press Merkel for financial aid from the EU to avert the country’s “bankruptcy,” as well as for visa-free travel and a path to membership in the 28-nation bloc. The meeting is scheduled for the “second half of the day,” according to Yatsenyuk’s spokesman, Olha Lappo.
“We need help, we do not need words,” Yatsenyuk told the crowd. “We needs acts from our European partners. We will see what political and economic package will be offered.”
In an interview posted on the website of the Ukrainian weekly Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and opposition leader jailed after Yanukovych defeated her in the 2010 election, said that she was willing to take part in negotiations to end the crisis but added that “the only topic” up for discussion was the manner of the president’s resignation, including “guarantees for the protection of his family.”
Most barricades erected around Independence Square to fend off a possible attack by the riot police remained in place Sunday, guarded by masked young men carrying homemade shields and wooden clubs. Located inside an area of central Kiev blocked off by barriers, City Hall, although no longer crammed with protesters, remained beyond the reach of authorities.
But in a sign that neither side wants to return to the violent clashes that killed at least three protesters last month, the police pulled back from barricades on Hrushevsky Street, the soot-smeared scene of the worst violence, and protesters cleared a narrow passageway for vehicles to pass through tangled mounds of garbage, rubber tires, sandbags and ice. A line of masked men in helmets, however, blocked all traffic and pedestrians.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office, in a statement posted on its website Sunday evening, lifted an important obstacle in the way of a settlement. It said it was “closing relevant criminal proceedings” and lifting any future liability against protesters covered by a conditional amnesty law passed by parliament on Jan. 29.
The law specified that an amnesty for those involved in sometimes-violent protests would go into effect only if protesters unblocked Hrushevsky Street and met a number of other conditions. The prosecutor’s statement implicitly certified that these conditions had been met, a move that should help ease tensions.
Many of the protesters who left City Hall on Sunday said they disagreed with the decision to vacate the building. The decision had been made by opposition leaders as part of an amnesty deal with the authorities aimed at defusing a crisis that a former Ukrainian president, Leonid Kravchuk, said last month had pushed the country to “the brink of civil war.”
The government has agreed to drop all criminal charges against 234 protesters, more than 200 of whom were freed from detention on Friday.
Bogdan Burtnuk, an activist from western Ukraine who joined the occupation of City Hall in December, said he thought it was a mistake to leave before “they release and clear all our hostages,” meaning that the freed detainees possibly still faced criminal charges.
Later, after a meeting with opposition leaders, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said the criminal cases would be closed today.
The agreement to vacate the building was strongly supported by Svoboda, a nationalist political party that is at odds with more hard-line forces like Right Sector, a coalition of militant groups that has said that Yanukovych’s resignation is a condition for any political settlement.
Switzerland’s foreign minister, Didier Burkhalter, said in a statement from Bern that the decision to vacate the building - which was covered in graffiti declaring it the “headquarters of the revolution” - was a “positive development,” and he urged “all sides to remain fully engaged in efforts to reach necessary compromises in a broad and inclusive political dialogue.”
But deep suspicion remained on both sides. Scoresof young men in camouflage fatigues who pulled out of City Hall early Sunday later returned to the building, gathering in a military-like formation outside and vowing to retake it if Pshonka did not sign a formal order lifting all charges.
“We do not trust them,” said the group’s commander, who identified himself only as Andriy.
Close to Independence Square, scores of activists spent the day cleaning up what still looks like a cross between a refugee camp and a war zone, minus the weaponry.
They used bulldozers to clear burned-out vehicles and dismantled some sections of barricade to allow enough space for cars to enter one at a time. They also reconfigured their defense lines by replacing stacks of now-melting ice with sandbags.
“We have reformatted Independence Square,” said Stepan Kubiv, the lawmaker in charge of protecting the camp. “Now thousands of us will launch a peaceful offensive on parliament to help lawmakers acknowledge their responsibilities.” Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Higgins of The New York Times; by Maria Danilova of The Associated Press; and by Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Daryna Krasnolutska and Kateryna Choursina of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/17/2014