Ukraine president meets opposition amid fears of force
KYIV: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday held a new round of crisis talks with opposition leaders as fears grew of an impending crackdown on thousands of protesters locked in a standoff with police in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian interior minister warned that efforts to solve the country’s deadly crisis without using force were proving “futile” as the opposition accused Yanukovych of planning to impose a state of emergency.
The European Union urged concrete steps to end the crisis, which has raised fears of a prolonged civil conflict and according to officials has already left three dead. The authorities also faced mounting pressure outside Kyiv with protesters storming regional administration offices not just in the anti-Yanukovych west of the country but also north and east of Kyiv.
With tensions rising in the capital after a night of sporadic clashes between security forces and protesters, Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko bluntly warned that the use of force was a possibility.
“The events of the last days in the Ukrainian capital have shown that our attempts to solve the conflict peacefully, without recourse to a confrontation of force, remain futile,” he said in a statement. Accusing the mainstream opposition of failing to control radicals, Zakharchenko said the authorities now had information that the protesters were “hoarding firearms” at their headquarters.
He later said that all protesters remaining on Independence Square and occupying official buildings in Kyiv would be considered as “extremist groups” and the authorities would use force if need be.
In a possible last-ditch attempt to find a peaceful solution, Yanukovych held unscheduled talks with the opposition. The presidency said he was meeting with UDAR (Punch) party leader and world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, Fatherland party leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk and nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party leader Oleg Tyagnybok at the presidential administration.
In a sign of a possible split within the ruling Regions Party over how to deal with the crisis, Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov said that dialogue was the only way forward.
“There can be only one solution to the political crisis — a peaceful one. Any use of force is unacceptable,” said Akhmetov, an ally of Yanukovych and bankroller of his party.