Ukrainian Protesters And Police Agree To Cease-Fire

Ukrainian Protesters And Police Agree To Cease-Fire

After violent protests continued Wednesday, both protesters and police forces agreed to a cease-fire after opposition leaders and President Victor Yanukovich agreed to a second round of negotiations.

After the three hours of negotiations held Wednesday showed no real progress, opposition leaders said that violence will only continue to grow if Mr Yanukovich doesn’t make some major concessions, like early presidential elections.

Vitali Klitschko, representing the Udar Party, Arseniy Yatsenyuk representing the Fatherland Party and Oleg Tyagnibok from the Svoboda Party are the leaders of the main opposition parties. They all condemned the violent demonstrations but after countless failed negotiations declared they are prepared to accept and support the violent protests if Yanukovich is not able to produce a concession within 24 hours.

Yatsenyuk said that Friday will be a decisive day, suggesting that even “a bullet in the forehead” is a possibility but one that he is prepared to accept. Vitali Klitschko also said that if their ultimatum isn't met in 24 hours his party will have no other option than to “go into attack.”

Protests started in November when a failed trade agreement with the European Union plunged Ukraine into a deep institutional crisis. Violence was avoided until a couple of days ago, when a highly criticized piece of legislation that basically banned free protests was the catalyst for a series of violent protests that left 5 dead and countless others injured.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday January 25 2014, 5:55 AM EST. Ref: NY Times. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0