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Yanukovych Invites Opposition For Talks

December 11, 2013
by RFE/RL

President Viktor Yanukovych says he is inviting all parties, including the opposition, to find a compromise to solve Ukraine's political crisis.

In a statement issued on his website on December 11, he called on the opposition 'not go down the road of confrontation and ultimatums.'

Opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleh Tyahnibok said they would not hold talks with Yanukovych until their demands, including that he resign, were met.

Earlier on December 11, Yanukovych had met with top EU and U.S. envoys.

Afterwards, the EU's foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton said Yanukovych had promised to take steps toward solving the crisis in Ukraine within 24 hours.

Ashton's spokeswoman, Maja Kocijancic, said Ashton was now meeting with the pro-EU opposition.

Earlier, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told Yanukovych that police actions against protesters were 'absolutely impermissible' in a democratic society.

Nuland told reporters after meeting Yanukovych in Kyiv that she had had 'tough but realistic talks,' which lasted for more than two hours.

Nuland added that Washington believed it 'is still possible to save Ukraine's European future, and that's what we want to see the president lead. That's going to require immediate security steps and getting back into a conversation with Europe and with the International Monetary Fund and bringing justice and human dignity to the people of Ukraine.'

Thousands of Ukrainians have been out in the streets of Kyiv for three weeks, angry at Yanukovych's last-minute decision to spurn a landmark agreement with the European Union. The decision was apparently taken under pressure from Russia which opposed the deal and threatened trade repercussions.

'Roundtable' talks aimed at defusing the political crisis in the country were held in Kyiv on December 11, but opposition leaders did not take part. The talks were proposed by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and backed by Yanukovych.

A first meeting took place on December 10, also without the participation of the opposition, which denounced the initiative as 'orchestrated.'

Earlier on December 11, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said he would not participate.

He said the talks had been 'compromised' by the overnight crackdown on pro-European demonstrators.

At around midnight on December 10, dozens of demonstrators and police were hurt in scuffles when hundreds of security personnel in riot gear moved in on the main protest camp on Kyiv's Independence Square and state buildings occupied by demonstrators.

Police later withdrew, and Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko vowed that there would be no forcible dispersal of protesters.

Opposition leader Vitaliy Klitschko said that with the overnight police action against protesters, Yanukovych had 'closed off the path to any compromise.'

The opposition called on Ukrainians to head to Independence Square to protect the protest camp.

On December 11, protesters on the square were putting back some of the barricades removed overnight by police.

With reporting by Reuters, Interfax, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-protests- yanukovych-talks/25197668.html

Copyright (c) 2013. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.