President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders have signed a deal to end the months of political crises according to BBC breaking news.
On the president’s official website he wrote:
“I declare that I initiate early presidential elections. I initiate the return of the Constitution of the year 2004 with redistribution of powers aside parliamentary republic.”
The violence in Kiev between protesters and police has left 77 dead and hundreds wounded. The opposition leader, Vitali Klitscko told German newspaper, Bild, that the opposition would sign the deal.
On Friday, the deal was signed calling for early elections, a new constitution and a new unity government. The elections will be held no later than December 2014 instead of March 2015. Protesters are saying that December is too late, they want the President out now.
It is unclear if the thousands of protesters camped out in Kiev’s Independence Square will pack up and go home anytime soon.
Officials in Russia are criticizing the deal that also reduced presidential powers to Yanukovych. The protesters involved in the violence were given amnesty by lawmakers. Protesters are divided by loyalties between Russia and the West.
Both sides are to refrain from violence, and the opposition are to hand over weapons and leave any occupied building. Pravy Sektor, a leader of a radical group said Friday, that he doesn’t believe President Viktor Yanukovych will honor the deal and “the national revolution will continue,” according to Interfax news agency.
The chairman of the committee in charge of relations with other ex-soviet nations in the lower house of Russian parliament, Leonid Slutskysaid, that the agreements serves the interest of the West. “We realize where and by whom this agreement has been written. It’s entirely in the interests of the United States and other powers, who want to split Ukraine from Russia,” he said.
Protesters in the Ukraine are upset about the corruption and the lack of democratic rights and the suffering economy. The protest and violence is making a failing Ukraine economy worse ans some are saying the country will likely default if there are no improvements.
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