Kiev protesters occupy government building amid uneasy truce
Source: The Guardian
About 1,000 protesters have moved from Kiev's Independence Square to occupy a government building in response to opposition calls to observe a truce with riot police after long talks with President Viktor Yanukovych ended without a major breakthrough.
Early on Friday, the protesters broke into the Ministry of Agricultural Policy building in central Kiev, meeting no resistance. The move followed the seizure of local governors' offices in several western regions on Thursday.
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On Wednesday, after three people had been killed in clashes with riot police, the opposition politician Vitali Klitschko had asked protesters in central Kiev to observe an eight-hour truce while talks went on. Klitschko had promised to "go on the attack" if Yanukovych did not launch snap elections within 24 hours, while Arseniy Yatsenyuk, of the Fatherland party, said he was ready to take a "bullet in the head".
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On Independence Square, the nationalist leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, who was part of the negotiations, put the idea of continuing discussions with the president to a midnight vote among the crowd, and it was overwhelmingly rejected. There are now difficult decisions to make for the opposition leaders, who have been unable to achieve their key demand of snap elections from Yanukovych but are uneasy about being held responsible for any further violence.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/24/kiev-protesters-occupy-government-building-truce-ukraine
Here's RT's take on it (which, as it seems, is more up to date)
Leader of the nationalist Svoboda opposition party, Oleg Tyagnibok, explained the terms proposed by the government during more than four-hour negotiations and asked the protesters whether they were ready to accept.
During the negotiations, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich proposed to stop the use of force, release all those detained during mass riots on Grushevskogo Street, and work out reduced penalties for those who were already arrested in exchange for the rioters leaving the area in central Kiev.
After a public vote at the square, the majority of the protesters refused to accept the government's conditions, according to the Svoboda party website. Opposition leaders agreed with decision of the demonstrators, urging them to maintain discipline and order.
Given the fact that Ukraine is complex and has an "ancient" fault line running through its territory, I hope all this ends in something like the Icelandic rewriting of the constitution, or a referendum.
Note that Ukraine isn't a case of 99 % wanting one thing and a ruling 1 % doing another - there's more preference for the EU, but many favour closer cooperation with Russia as well.
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