Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has signed a deal with the country’s opposition to hold presidential elections early, form a national unity government and make constitutional changes reducing his powers, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by Al Jazeera.

Constitutional reform will begin immediately with an end goal of finalizing the new constitution by September, but for the time being Ukraine will restore its 2004 constitution. Presidential elections will be held as soon as the new constitution is adopted, no later than December 2014.

In a related move on Friday, Ukraine's parliament voted to allow the release of imprisoned opposition figure and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was jailed in 2011 on controversial abuse of power charges.

Yanukovich announced Friday's agreement after all-night talks with the opposition and three European Union ministers, aimed at resolving a crisis in which at least 77 people have been killed in gun battles between protesters and police that began Tuesday.

"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.

After several hours of silence from the opposition, leader Vitali Klitschko confirmed to the German newspaper Bild that his side would sign the deal but said further talks would be needed to quell protests.

Klitschko, leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR), Oleh Tyahnibok, head of the rightist Svoboda party, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk of the Fatherland party, signed the agreement on behalf of the opposition, the document says.

The agreement further dictates that all acts of violence over the past few months will be investigated and that all illegal weapons must be surrendered to the Ministry of Interior. “Both parties will undertake serious efforts for the normalization of life,” it added.

It is unclear how much sway the opposition’s three most visible political leaders will have in convincing protesters to return to their daily lives.

European leaders who helped broker the deal praised the significant step forward for Ukraine.

“I welcome the agreement reached between the government and the opposition in Ukraine,” said European Council president Herman Van Rompuy, who added that the agreement was made possible, in part, by diplomats from France, Germany, Poland and Russia. “It is now the responsibility of all parties to be courageous and turn words into deeds for the sake of Ukraine's future.”

Several deputies exchanged blows as the chamber descended into chaos for several minutes. The speaker, Yanukovich ally Volodymyr Rybak, then left the chamber, but some of the deputies continued the debate.

On the streets, a shaky peace reigned in the protest camps in downtown Kiev after the days of fighting, which left at least 577 injured in addition to those killed. On Friday morning several thousand protesters milled around Independence Square, known as the Maidan, with no visible police forces remaining on the square. Volunteers walked freely to the protest camps to donate food and other aid.

Support for the president appeared to be weakening, as reports said the army's deputy chief of staff, Yury Dumansky, was resigning in "disagreement with the politics of pulling the armed forces into an internal civil conflict."

Yanukovich was expected to "make concessions in order to restore peace," Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted his spokeswoman Anna German as saying.

Late on Thursday, the Ukrainian parliament passed a measure prohibiting an “anti-terrorist operation” threatened by Yanukovich to restore order and calling for all Interior Ministry troops to return to their bases.

But it was unclear how binding the move would be, as the mechanism for carrying it out would have to be developed by the president's office and the Interior Ministry.

"We haven't achieved anything yet — neither Europe nor freedom nor new leadership. We will stop our fight only after Yanukovich resigns. He has blood on his hands," protester Stepan Rodich told The Associated Press from Maidan.

In a related move on Friday, Ukraine's parliament voted to allow the release of imprisoned opposition figure and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was jailed in 2011 on controversial abuse of power charges.

 Breotan wrote:
I don't know how awe inspiring the threat of U.S. sanctions is, given we have next to no trade with the Ukraine and how little regional influence we have anymore.

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- Ukraine's President appeared to be gone from the capital Saturday. His living quarters were emptied out; in parliament a rival pushed for his immediate resignation, and responsibility for his office was handed off to an old rival.

Change appears to be gripping the country swiftly.

At the presidential residence in a Kiev suburb, groundskeepers and gate personnel kept watch over living quarters that were emptied out.

Gone were the Ukrainian President's guards. And there were reports that the Viktor Yanukovych has left town, after he signed a landmark peace deal with his opposition.

His residence, government buildings, protest gatherings, the central city were devoid of police and of security forces that had opened fire on protesters this week, dropping many dozens of them to the ground.

As a CNN crew drove to Yanukovych's residence, it passed checkpoints set up by protesters.

When they arrived, the gatekeepers told CNN that they were not allowing the general public onto the grounds, but they let journalists enter. The civil servants asked that the reporters treat his home as a crime scene.

Both of the President's two living quarter buildings were empty, the crew saw, as it inspected the grounds.

When the civil servants spoke of the home, they referred to it as being the "people's residence" once more.

Yanukovych left for Ukraine's second's largest city of Kharkiv for a meeting after Friday's peace agreement, said a senior U.S. State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official had been on the phone with Ukraine's foreign minister.
That's "not unusual," the official said.

Yanukovych has strong support in the East, where many ethnic Russians live. The raging opposition he faces was triggered by his loyalty to Russia and a decision in November to turn away from a deal with the European Union.

In many parts of Ukraine, people have toppled statues of former Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin, a founder of the Soviet Union. The communist empire had included Ukraine, and the country gained independence, after the USSR fell.

In the Rada, Ukraine's parliament, one of Yanukovych's chief opponents took the podium to push him out of office as soon as possible and steamroll change.

The Rada passed a resolution to free Yulia Tymoshenko, the jailed former Prime Minister and a hero of the country's 2004 revolution. It isn't clear whether the move is legally binding.

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko urged lawmakers to enact a resolution calling for the President to immediately resign and calling for early presidential elections to be held by May 25.

Key Yanukovych allies left office, and the presidential duties were handed off, until a new Cabinet is selected.

During the session, resignations were announced for the speaker of parliament and another leading presidential ally.

Hours later, parliament elected a new speaker, one of Yanukovych's stark rivals, and gave him the duty of coordinating the executive office until a new Cabinet is in place.

Another opposition parliamentarian received the duties of acting Interior Minister.

The Rada sacked Yanukovych's Prosecutor General.

Friday's deal
In Ukraine, neither protesters, opposition politicians nor the embattled President had gotten all of what they wanted from the deal after a week of bloodshed.

Enthusiasm was muted for the peace deal brokered among them a day before by the foreign ministers of Poland, Germany and France.

Hours before they signed the deal, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned them not to expect perfection.

"All sides need to remember that compromise means getting less than 100%," he said in a message on Twitter.

The deal takes away many of Yanukovych's powers soon -- and his office completely, before the year is up. That wasn't soon enough for some.

Protesters who occupied Kiev's Maidan, or Independence Square, for months and watched many dozens of fellow demonstrators die this week had wanted him out of office.

If the President has fled, that wish may have already been fulfilled.

And on Friday, the Rada, rolled up its sleeves to accelerate the implement the agreement.

First, they tackled the section designed to limit the President's power and roll back the Constitution to what it had been in 2004.

The deal also requires presidential elections "as soon as the new Constitution is adopted but no later than December 2014."

They also called for an investigation into this week's violence and handed police, per the agreement, more restrictions on the use of force. Over the weekend, protesters are also to turn in their illegal weapons and withdraw from streets and public buildings.

Early Saturday, a large crowd gathered in the square for funeral ceremonies.

The night before, after the deal was announced, demonstrators held a procession to remember their dead that night. Pallbearers carried coffins over the heads of a throng of people holding up lights in their honor.

Pavel, a demonstrator who identified himself only by his first name, said he'd helped carry away people with bullet wounds Thursday, when protesters died en masse after shots rang out.

Pavel said on Friday that he won't forget his fallen compatriots, nor will he give up the fight.

"As long as (Yanukovych) is president," he said, "the movement will continue."

But other protesters showed some support for the deal. Its announcement before the crowd at Independence Square on Friday drew some cheers.

And when Klitschko, who has acted a spokesman for the movement, took the stage Friday, he got a notably frostier reception.

He contended that the government was trying to divide the protesters with the deal.

He walked off to a handful of jeers.

The wave of unrest began in November, when Yanukovych scrapped a European Union trade deal and turned toward Russia.

The country is ethnically split, with many ethnic Russians living in the East. The rest of the country comprises mostly ethnic Ukrainians.

Russia, which has offered to lend money to cash-strapped Ukraine in a deal worth billions of dollars and to lower its gas prices, has put pressure on Yanukovych to crack down on demonstrators.

Western leaders, who have offered Ukraine a more long-term aid package requiring economic modernization, urged the President to show restraint, open up the government to the opposition and let the democratic process work out deep-seated political differences.

But the fight was also about corruption and control. The opposition called Yanukovych heavy-handed, with Klitschko and others saying protesters wouldn't leave Maidan until he resigned.

Tensions boiled over Tuesday, when security forces charged into a Kiev crowd with stun grenades, nightsticks and armored personnel carriers. At least 26 people -- protesters and police alike -- were killed.

Late Wednesday, the government announced a truce.

But on Thursday, protesters pursued police as they withdrew. Security forces fired back, sending dozens of protesters tumbling to the ground.

Then came the landmark agreement Friday.

 d-usa wrote:
I think I read that the police there is now sided with the protesters.

 d-usa wrote:
And it appears that Yanukovych has officially resigned?

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
And it appears that Yanukovych has officially resigned?

That would be an interesting development. Perhaps fearing the result of an increased crackdown if he later lost power he thought it best to leave to somewhere more sympathetic

 d-usa wrote:
And it appears that Yanukovych has officially resigned?

Twitter rumors and people celebrating in front of the parliament, but no official confirmation yet...

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I think he will be lucky to avoid a Ceaucescu style resolution of the crisis.

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- Embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych insisted in an interview aired on Ukrainian TV Saturday that he is not resigning and not leaving the country.

Around the same time, an opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, was freed from prison.

Ukraine's Parliament voted unanimously to remove Yanukovych from office. It's not clear if this is binding.

The Parliament also voted to hold new elections on May 25, a key opposition demand.

Yanukovych recorded his defiant statement in Kharkiv, a pro-Russian stronghold in the eastern part of Ukraine.

He said he would continue to work to stop the bloodshed and prevent further division within the country.

Parliament votes to remove president Police join protesters after deadly riot

It came after his absence from the capital, Kiev -- a day after he signed a landmark peace deal with the opposition to end days of bloody protests -- fueled speculation he might heed opposition calls for him to stand down.

At the presidential residence in a Kiev suburb, groundskeepers and gate personnel kept watch over living quarters that were vacant.

Gone were the Ukrainian President's guards. And opposition leader Vitali Klitschko said Yanukovych had left town, a day after European Union leaders helped broker the peace agreement.

"Unfortunately, President Yanukovych who did not hear the people has withdrawn from his constitutional duties himself. And today he has already left the capital. Millions of citizens see only one option in the current situation -- it is calling the early presidential election," Klitschko said Saturday.

The President's residence, government buildings, protest gatherings and the central city were devoid of police and of security forces that had opened fire on protesters this week, dropping many dozens of them to the ground.

'People's residence'

As a CNN crew drove to Yanukovych's residence, it passed checkpoints set up by protesters.

Ukraine tarnishes Putin's Olympic moment

When the crew arrived, the gatekeepers said they were not allowing the general public onto the grounds, but they let journalists enter. The civil servants asked that the reporters treat his home as a crime scene.

Both of the President's two living quarter buildings were empty, the crew saw, as it inspected the grounds.

When the civil servants spoke of the home, they referred to it as being the "people's residence" once more.

A senior U.S. State Department official said Yanukovych had left Kiev for Ukraine's second's largest city of Kharkiv for a meeting after Friday's peace agreement. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had been on the phone with Ukraine's foreign minister.

That's "not unusual," the official said.

Yanukovych has strong support in the East, where many ethnic Russians live. The raging opposition he faces was triggered by his loyalty to Russia and a decision in November to turn away from a deal with the European Union.

In many parts of Ukraine, people have toppled statues of former Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin, a founder of the Soviet Union. The communist empire had included Ukraine, and the country gained independence after the USSR fell.

Resignation push

In the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, one of Yanukovych's chief opponents took the podium to call for him to be pushed from office as soon as possible and steamroll change.

The Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution to free Tymoshenko, the jailed former Prime Minister and a hero of the country's 2004 revolution.

Tymoshenko was released on Saturday, said a spokeswoman for her political party.

The case against her was widely considered in the West to have been politically motivated.

Klitschko, of the opposition UDAR party, urged lawmakers to enact a resolution urging the President immediately to resign and calling for early presidential elections to be held by May 25.

Key Yanukovych allies left office, and the presidential duties were handed off, until a new Cabinet is selected.

During the session, resignations were announced for the speaker of parliament and another leading presidential ally.

Hours later, parliament elected a new speaker, one of Yanukovych's most determined rivals, and gave him the duty of coordinating the executive office until a new Cabinet is in place.

Another opposition parliamentarian received the duties of acting Interior Minister.

The Verkhovna Rada sacked Yanukovych's prosecutor general.

Friday's deal

In Ukraine, neither protesters, opposition politicians nor the embattled President had gotten all of what they wanted from the deal after a week of bloodshed.

Enthusiasm was muted for the peace deal brokered among them a day before by the foreign ministers of Poland, Germany and France.

Hours before they signed the deal, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned them not to expect perfection.

"All sides need to remember that compromise means getting less than 100%," he said in a message on Twitter.

The deal takes away many of Yanukovych's powers soon -- and his office completely, before the year is up. That wasn't soon enough for some.

Protesters who occupied Kiev's Maidan, or Independence Square, for months and watched many dozens of fellow demonstrators die this week had wanted him out of office.

If the President has fled, that wish may have already been fulfilled.

And on Friday, the Rada, rolled up its sleeves to implement the agreement.

First, they tackled the section designed to limit the President's power and roll back the Constitution to what it had been in 2004.

The deal also requires presidential elections "as soon as the new Constitution is adopted but no later than December 2014."

They also called for an investigation into this week's violence and handed police, per the agreement, more restrictions on the use of force. Over the weekend, protesters are also to turn in their illegal weapons and withdraw from streets and public buildings.

Grief, anger
Early Saturday, a large crowd gathered in the square for funeral ceremonies.

The night before, after the deal was announced, demonstrators held a procession to remember their dead that night. Pallbearers carried coffins over the heads of a throng of people holding up lights in their honor.

Pavel, a demonstrator who identified himself only by his first name, said he'd helped carry away people with bullet wounds Thursday, when protesters died en masse after shots rang out.

Pavel said on Friday that he won't forget his fallen compatriots, nor will he give up the fight.

"As long as (Yanukovych) is president," he said, "the movement will continue."

But other protesters showed some support for the deal. Its announcement before the crowd at Independence Square on Friday drew some cheers.

And when Klitschko, who has acted a spokesman for the movement, took the stage Friday, he got a notably frostier reception.

He contended that the government was trying to divide the protesters with the deal.

He walked off to a handful of jeers.

Discord's roots
The wave of unrest began in November, when Yanukovych scrapped a European Union trade deal and turned toward Russia.

The country is ethnically split, with many ethnic Russians living in the East. The rest of the country comprises mostly ethnic Ukrainians.

Russia, which has offered to lend money to cash-strapped Ukraine in a deal worth billions of dollars and to lower its gas prices, has put pressure on Yanukovych to crack down on demonstrators.

Western leaders, who have offered Ukraine a more long-term aid package requiring economic modernization, urged the President to show restraint, open up the government to the opposition and let the democratic process work out deep-seated political differences.

But the fight was also about corruption and control. The opposition called Yanukovych heavy-handed, with Klitschko and others saying protesters wouldn't leave Maidan until he resigned.

Tensions boiled over Tuesday, when security forces charged into a Kiev crowd with stun grenades, nightsticks and armored personnel carriers. At least 26 people -- protesters and police alike -- were killed.

Late Wednesday, the government announced a truce.

But on Thursday, protesters pursued police as they withdrew. Security forces fired back, sending dozens of protesters tumbling to the ground.

Then came the landmark agreement Friday.

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
Or maybe not

 LordofHats wrote:
For the most part we can reliably expect the winner of a US election to be the person who actually won via votes

Oleg Boldyrev wrote:Ukraine crisis: Opposition asserts authority in Kiev

Ukraine's opposition has asserted its authority over Kiev and parliament in a day of fast-paced events.

MPs have replace the parliamentary speaker and attorney general, appointed a new pro-opposition interior minister and voted to free jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Police appear to have abandoned their posts across the capital.

Protesters in Kiev have walked unchallenged into the president's official and residential buildings.

President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders signed a peace deal on Friday after several days of violence in which dozens of people died in a police crackdown on months of protest.

But the deal failed to end the protests and huge crowds remain in Independence Square, the Maidan.

The opposition have called for elections before 25 May, earlier than envisaged in Friday's peace deal.

The president's whereabouts are unclear - his aides say he is in Kharkhiv, close to the border with Russia.

Presidential aide Hanna Herman said he was due to give a televised address later.

A gathering of deputies from the south-east and Crimea - traditionally Russian-leaning areas - is taking place there, but Ms Herman said the president had "no intention" of attending, nor of leaving the country.

An opposition figure has announced to the protest crowds in Independence Square that the president has resigned. This has not been confirmed, but the crowds reacted with huge cheers.

'Rapid change'

Ms Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011 for abuse of power. Her supporters had always maintained this was simply Mr Yanukovych taking out his most prominent opponent, and her release has always been a key demand of the protest movement.

She is expected to be released in Kharkiv later on Saturday.

Her daughter, Yevheniya Tymoshenko, said she was thankful "to all Ukrainians, the democratic world, and the lawmakers who have just released her".


The parliament building was guarded by protesters on Saturday morning


One group of protesters has been driving around Independence Square in a military vehicle


Protesters and journalists walked uncontested into the grounds of the official president's residence north of the capital

"We must go there now very quickly to ensure that nothing happens to her and to free her together," she said.

On Saturday morning as parliament met, speaker Volodymyr Rybak resigned, citing ill health. He has been replaced by Oleksandr Turchynov, an ally of Ms Tymoshenko.

Another Tymoshenko ally, Arsen Avakov, has been appointed interim interior minister. He replaces Vitaly Zakharchenko, who was sacked on Friday after being blamed for the deaths of civilians in last week's crackdown on protests.

Vitaly Klitschko, leader of the opposition Udar party, repeated his demand for the president's immediate resignation.

The protests first erupted in late November when Mr Yanukovych rejected a landmark association and trade deal with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia.

On Thursday, in the worst violence since the unrest began, police opened fire on protesters who were occupying Independence Square in central Kiev. The health ministry says 77 people - both protesters and police - have been killed since Tuesday.

For a second day, funerals are being held in the square.

The BBC's Kevin Bishop in Kiev says journalists and protesters were able to enter freely the previously heavily guarded presidential complex.

The protesters have not entered the offices themselves. They said they were protecting the buildings from looting and vandalism.

"He's not here, none of his officials or anyone linked directly to the administration are here," said Ostap Kryvdyk, a protest leader, referring to the president.

Correspondents say police appear to have abandoned posts across the city, while the numbers gathered in the Maidan are growing.

Hundreds of people have also entered the grounds of the president's official residence, the Mezhyhirya, about 15km (10 miles) north of the city centre.

In a statement, the interior ministry said the police force was "at the service of the people and completely shares its aspirations for rapid changes".

"We pay homage to the dead," it added.

Leaders booed

The political pact was signed on Friday by President Yanukovych and opposition leaders after mediation by EU foreign ministers, and approved by Ukraine's parliament.

It restores the 2004 constitution - reducing the powers of the presidency - and says a unity government will be formed and elections held by the end of the year.

All but one of the 387 MPs present voted in favour, including dozens of MPs from Mr Yanukovych's own Party of Regions.

The deal has been met with scepticism by some of the thousands of protesters who remain in the square. Opposition leaders who signed it were booed and called traitors.

The US and Russian presidents have agreed that the deal needs to be swiftly implemented, officials say.

Russia's Vladimir Putin told Barack Obama in a telephone conversation on Friday that Russia wanted to be part of the implementation process, a US state department spokesperson said.