UPDATE 1-Police and protesters clash after Ukraine president offers foes posts
* Confrontation follows offer of top posts to opposition
* Opposition says will keep up demands for early election
* Ukraine’s U-turn from Europe has divided country
By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Police clashed with protesters who
blockaded a building in central Kyiv on Sunday and the fate of
Ukraine’s government was uncertain after embattled President
Viktor Yanukovich offered opposition leaders key posts.
One of the president’s main foes described his offer as a
“poisoned” attempt to kill off a protest movement in a country
plunged into unrest by Yanukovich’s U-turn from the European
Union towards Russia.
Emboldened opposition leaders said they would press for more
concessions, warning that they would not let Yanukovich call the
shots, setting the stage for a tough political battle at a
special session of parliament scheduled for Tuesday.
In the latest violence, a few thousand protesters tried to
storm an ornate cultural centre where hundreds of security
forces personnel were gathered in central Kyiv, a few hundred
metres from the hub of weeks of opposition protests on
Independence Square.
Demonstrators threw stones and smoke bombs while police
fired stun grenades and sprayed water into the crowd.
Police and security forces later left the building, its
windows shattered, and streamed out through a corridor created
by the crowd after an opposition leader, Vitaly Klitschko,
arrived at the scene and helped to negotiate a solution.
The two-hour pre-dawn confrontation came after Yanukovich
made his biggest concession yet in a two-month standoff that has
cast Ukraine into crisis, killed at least three people and
deepened tension between Russia and the West.
The opposition planned to hold a prayer ceremony later on
Sunday for the protesters who have been killed and carry a
coffin bearing the body of one of them, Mykhailo Zhyznevsky,
down Kyiv’s main street before his burial.
Yanukovich abruptly abandoned plans to sign political
association and free trade deals with the EU in November,
pledging instead to improve ties with former Soviet master
Russia and angering millions who dream of being in Europe.
Hoping to end protests that threaten to bring the country to
a standstill, Yanukovich on Saturday offered former economy
minister Arseny Yatsenyuk the post of prime minister.
Klitschko, a former international boxing champion, was
offered the post of deputy prime minister responsible for
humanitarian issues, the presidential website said.
The presidency linked its offer to the opposition reining in
violent protesters. Though the protest movement is largely
peaceful, a hard core of radicals have been fighting pitched
battles with police away from Independence Square.
EARLY ELECTION
Opposition leaders, whose power base is among protesters
massing in the square named after the independence Ukraine
gained in the 1991 Soviet break-up, said they would press their
calls for early elections and repeal of an anti-protest law.
“We are ready to take on this responsibility and take the
country into the European Union,” Yatsenyuk was quoted as
telling crowds on Independence Square after emerging from talks
with Yanukovich. But he added that this would entail the freeing
of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was jailed in
2011.
Klitschko told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “This was a
poisoned offer by Yanukovich to divide our protest movement. We
will keep on negotiating and continue to demand early elections.
The protest by Ukrainians against the corrupt president must not
have been in vain.”
Opposition leaders say Yanukovich has betrayed Ukraine and
are calling for an election long before the next one is due in
spring 2015. Klitschko said it must be held this year.
The United States has warned Yanukovich that failure to ease
the standoff could have “consequences” for its relationship with
Ukraine. Germany, France and other Western governments have also
urged him to talk to the opposition.
Pope Francis called on Sunday for an end to the violence and
for all the parties to engage in “constructive dialogue”.
Russia on Saturday stepped up its warnings against
international interference in Ukraine, telling European Union
officials to prevent outside meddling and cautioning the United
States against inflammatory statements.