Opposition leaders sign deal with Yanukovych to end Ukraine crisis
KIEV, Ukraine — A deal designed to end Ukraine’s long-running crisis was signed Friday afternoon by President Viktor Yanukovych and the three leaders of the political opposition, but the accord appeared likely to be a hard sell among the thousands of demonstrators who have sustained months of protest.
The pact, reached after Ukraine’s bloodiest week of street fighting after all-night negotiations sponsored by European and Russian officials, calls for an immediate return to the 2004 constitution, which gives the parliament, not the president, the right to choose a prime minister and most of the cabinet.
But the big sticking point is the presidency: early elections are to be held, but not until December, and protesters on the Maidan, the opposition stronghold known officially as Independence Square, said Friday that such an arrangement was not acceptable. They have promised not to leave the square until Yanukovych leaves the presidency.
“I think people are preparing for the worst, for more to come,” said Sergiy, a geography teacher from Lviv who is volunteering as a medic in a makeshift triage center at the October Palace, and who like others interviewed Friday refused to give his last name.
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