Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Photo: ReutersUkraine’s embattled President announced he would return to work after four days’ sick leave, as protesters filled Kiev’s main square yesterday demanding he give up power.
Opposition leaders, addressing the crowd on their return home from meeting European and US officials, said they hoped for international mediation in negotiations with the government and for constitutional change to limit presidential power.
Calling for a complete change of leadership after weeks of crisis that have divided the country and set the West against Yanukovych’s Russian allies, opposition figures who attended a security conference in Munich told supporters they would secure international economic aid if they were able to take power.
Yanukovych, who angered opponents by spurning a trade pact with the EU and turning instead to Moscow for financial support, announced on Thursday he was on sick leave and has not been seen in public since.
Opposition leaders say west ready to support them
Critics saw in that a tactic to deflect pressure for political compromise.
On Friday, he signed legislation revoking unpopular new restrictions on protest meetings that has, however, failed to appease opponents who are demanding the release of dozens of people arrested in recent weeks.
Yesterday, a presidential statement said Yanukovych planned to return to work today after an acute respiratory infection.
“After undergoing required treatment, the President of Ukraine feels well and his health is satisfactory,” it quoted a state medical official, Oleksandr Orda, as saying.
On the capital’s Independence Square, focus of a sprawling, barricaded protest camp throughout the winter, thousands of people gathered to listen to opposition leaders despite a freezing wind and Arctic temperatures that helped keep attendance well below those of major rallies in recent weeks.
Vitaly Klitschko, a former world champion heavyweight boxer-turned-politician, said they discussed with senior Western officials in Munich bringing in international mediators in talks with the Ukrainian authorities.
“The democratic world has understood that there is no trust in the Yanukovych regime,” he told the crowd. “So we spoke about international mediation in negotiations with Yanukovych, so that afterward there will no differing interpretations of obligations.”
Arseny Yatsenyuk of the Batkivshchyna party, who turned down an offer last week from Yanukovych to become prime minister, called on the authorities to free 116 prisoners.
The President signed a law allowing protesters to be set free - but only once demonstrators stop occupying public buildings.
Yatsenyuk also renewed a call for a release of his party’s leader, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose freedom has also been a demand of the European Union. And he said there should be an international inquiry into “the criminal regime”, held under the auspices of the Council of Europe.
“We told our Western partners we need real financial help to get the country out of crisis,” Yatsenyuk said.
“But when we say ‘we’, we mean the Ukrainian people – not a penny must go to the Yanukovych regime.
“They are ready to help the Ukrainian people. But we must restore popular authority,” he added. “Parliament must amend the constitution and get rid of the dictatorial powers of the President.”
Some opposition leaders have urged the EU, whose foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is due in Kiev tomorrow, to impose sanctions to hurt the business and financial interests of the President and his leading supporters. However, few European governments see that as worthwhile at present.
At least six people were killed during protests last month and some leading figures have warned of “civil war”.
Since the resignation of Yanukovych’s Prime Minister a week ago, the government has been operating in an interim capacity and some opposition leaders say they fear the President might impose a state of emergency or military rule on the country.