After 26 die, sides call truce in Ukraine

Talks agreed on; protesters dig in

Protesters gather behind shields Wednesday in Kiev’s Independence Square during clashes with Ukrainian riot police.
Protesters gather behind shields Wednesday in Kiev’s Independence Square during clashes with Ukrainian riot police.

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine’s protest leaders and the president they are trying to oust called a truce Wednesday, just hours after the military raised fears of a widespread crackdown with a vow to defeat “terrorists” responsible for seizing weapons and burning down buildings.

The two sides agreed to negotiate to end the violence that left at least 26 people dead and more than 400 injured.

President Viktor Yanukovych met with opposition leaders and the two sides agreed to halt the violence and to hold talks on ending bloodshed, a statement on the presidential website said. The statement did not give any further details.

Vitali Klitschko, one of the leaders of the protests that have sought to keep Ukraine open to Europe and out of a close political and economic alliance with Russia, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Yanukovych agreed that there would be no attempt to storm the protesters’ encampment on the main square of downtown Kiev.

The truce was announced hours after the president replaced the army chief and the military vowed a national anti-terrorist operation to restore order. Officials have often referred to the protesters who have demanded Yanukovych’s resignation for months as “terrorists.”

Meanwhile, the protesters demanding Yanukovych’s resignation showed no sign of yielding. In Kiev, they stokedwhat they called a “ring of fire” separating them from the riot police to defend the remnants of a stage on Independence Square that has been a focal point of their protests.

Men dismantled the tents and field kitchens from the protest movement’s earlier, more peaceful phase and hauled their remnants onto the fires. They piled on mattresses, sleeping bags, foam pads and whatever else looked flammable.

An announcement by the SBU, the Ukraine state security service, offered a new indication of turmoil extending beyond Kiev.

“In many regions of the country, municipal buildings, offices of the Interior Ministry, state security and the prosecutor general, army units and arms depots, are being seized,” Oleksandr Yakimenko, the head of the SBU, said in a statement.

“Courtrooms are being burned down, vandals are destroying private apartments, killing peaceful citizens,” the statement said. Yakimenko said the past 24 hours had shown “a growing escalation of violent confrontation and widespread use of weapons by extremist oriented groups.”

The recent violence has been the worst in nearly three months of anti-government protests that have paralyzed Kiev. The two sides are locked in a battle over the identity of the nation of 46 million, whose loyalties are divided between Russia and the West. The protests began in late November after Yanukovych turned away from a long-anticipated deal with the European Union in exchange for a $15 billion bailout from Russia.

Political and diplomatic maneuvering has continued, with both Moscow and the West eager to gain influence over the former Soviet republic. Three EU foreign ministers - from Germany, France and Poland - were heading to Kiev today to speak with both sides before an emergency EU meeting back in Brussels to consider sanctions against those responsible for the violence.

President Barack Obama also stepped in to condemn the violence, warning Wednesday that “there will be consequences” for Ukraine if it continues. The U.S. has raised the prospect of joining with the EU to impose sanctions.

State Department deputy spokesman Marie Harf said visa restrictions already have been imposed against some members of the Ukrainian government, and cited “different kinds of individual sanctions that can be levied” without being specific.

A senior State Department official said Wednesday that U.S. officials were concerned about the Ukrainian president’s decision to replace the army chief. U.S. officials have been able to stay in direct contact senior security force leaders in the Ukrainian government, but in the past 24 hours that has been difficult because they are not answering their phones, the official said.

The official was not authorized to be quoted by name and would brief reporters only on condition of anonymity.

The State Department, in an alert to U.S. citizens, said travel into and out of the center of Kiev was restricted and described the situation as “currently very fluid.” It also warned that roving gangs had attacked journalists and protesters and committed other random acts of violence inKiev and other cities.

In Kiev, demonstrators forced their way into the main post office on Independence Square, also known as the Maidan, after a nearby building they had previously occupied was burned down late Tuesday in fiery clashes with riot police. Thousands of activists armed with firebombs and rocks had defended the square.

“The revolution has turned into a war with the authorities,” Vasyl Oleksenko, a retired geologist from central Ukraine, said Wednesday. “We must fight this bloody, criminal leadership. We must fight for our country, our Ukraine!”

Before the truce was announced the bad blood was running so high it has fueled fears the nation could be sliding toward a messy breakup.While most people in the country’s western regions resent Yanukovych, he enjoys strong support in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern and southern regions, where many want strong ties with Russia.

Neither side had appeared willing to compromise, with the opposition insisting on Yanukovych’s resignation and an early election and the president apparently prepared to fight until the end.

Opposition lawmaker Oleh Lyashko warned that Yanukovych himself was in danger.

“Yanukovych, you will end like [ousted Libyan dictator Moammar] Gadhafi,” Lyashkotold thousands of angry protesters. “Either you, a parasite, will stop killing people or this fate will await you. Remember this, dictator!”

Before the truce announcement, Yanukovych described the violence as an attempt to overthrow the government by his political adversaries, who want to push Ukraine closer to the European Union.

“Without any mandate from the people, illegally and in breach of the constitution of Ukraine, these politicians - if I may use that term - have resorted to pogroms, arson and murder to try to seize power,” the president said in a statement.

He blamed the protesters for the violence and said the opposition leaders had “crossed a line when they called people to arms.”

“I again call on the leaders of the opposition … to draw a boundary between themselves and radical forces, which are provoking bloodshed and clashes with the security services,” the president said. “If they don’t want to leave - they should acknowledge that they are supporting radicals.”

He also called for a day of mourning for the dead today.

As the scope of the violence became clear, Russia issued a statement blaming the “criminal activities of radical opposition forces” for causing the bloodshed and denouncing European countries for refusing to acknowledge that.

A statement Wednesday from the Russian Foreign Ministry described the violence as an attempted coup and even used the phrase “brown revolution,” an allusion to the Nazi rise to power in Germany in 1933. The ministry said Russia would use “all our influence to restore peace and calm.”

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he and his counterparts from Germany and Poland would meet both sides in Ukraine ahead of the EU meeting on possible sanctions. He said he hoped the two sides “will find a way for dialogue.”

But Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, speaking at a joint news conference with President Francois Hollande of France, made plain that sanctions would be applied against those responsible for the violence. EU foreign ministers have only to decide “which specific sanctions should be applied,” she said.

Possible sanctions include travel bans and asset freezes, which could hit hard the powerful oligarchs who back Yanukovych.

Ordinary Ukrainians, meanwhile, are struggling in a stagnating economy and soaring corruption. They have been especially angered to see that Yanukovych’s close friends and family have risen to top government posts and amassed fortunes since he gained power in 2010. Yanukovych’s dentist son, Oleksander, has become a financial and construction magnate worth $187 million, according to Forbes Ukraine.

The latest bout of street violence began Tuesday when protesters attacked police lines and set fires outside parliament, accusing Yanukovych of ignoring their demands to enact constitutional changes that would limit the president’s power - a key opposition demand. Parliament, dominated by his supporters, was stalling on taking up the change.

Police responded by attacking the protest camp. Armed with water cannons, stun grenades and rubber bullets, police dismantled some barricades. But the protesters held their ground through the night, encircling the protest camp with new burning barricades of tires, furniture and debris.

On Wednesday morning, the center of Kiev was cordoned off by police, the subway was shut down and most shops on the main street were closed. But hundreds of Ukrainians still flocked to the opposition camp, some wearing ski masks and armed with bats.

One group of young men and women poured gas into plastic bottles, preparing firebombs, while a volunteer walked by distributing ham sandwiches. Other activists were busy crushing the pavement and placing it into bags to fortify the barricades.

In the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where most residents yearn for stronger ties with the EU, protesters seized several government buildings, including police stations and the offices of the governor, prosecutors, security officials and the tax agency. They also broke into an Interior Ministry unit and set it on fire.

In another western city, Lutsk, protesters handcuffed the regional governor, a Yanukovych appointee, and tied him on a central square after he refused to resign. In the city of Khmelnitsky, three people were injured when protesters tried to storm a law-enforcement office.

Information for this article was contributed by Maria Danilova, Yuras Karmanau, Svetlana Fedas, Laura Mills, Vladimir Isachenkov, John-Thor Dahlburg, Juergen Baetz, Jim Kuhnhenn, Lara Jakes, Deb Riechmann and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press and by Andrew Higgins, Andrew Kramer, Steven Lee Myers, Michael R. Gordon, Alison Smale, Richard Berry, Peter Baker, Rick Gladstone, Stephen Castle,Alissa J. Rubin and Steven Erlanger of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/20/2014

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