Sign this deal or you’re dead
Rebs agree after warning
TAKE THIS DEAL or die. That was the frank warning Poland’s foreign minister delivered to Ukrainian rebel leaders before they signed a peace deal with the country’s president Friday to end three months of deadly fighting.
“If you don’t support this, you will have martial law, the army, you’ll all be dead,” Radoslaw Sikorski warned in footage caught by television cameras as he emerged from talks in Kiev where the agreement was hammered out.
A few hours later, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition leaders signed the deal to end a crisis that nearly plunged the country into civil war.
Out on the barricades in Independence Square, hardcore Ukrainian protesters were not happy that the agreement allows Yanukovych to cling to power for now.
“Resign! Resign! Resign!” they cried as the coffin of one of the slain activists was hoisted in the air by the crowd.
Vitali Klitschko, the ex-world boxing champ turned opposition leader, was booed as he tried to sell them on the “very important” pact.
“By tomorrow we want (Yanukovych) out,” said a fatigue-clad man who grabbed the microphone. “My comrade was shot and our leaders shake the hand of a murderer. It’s a disgrace.”
But the ranks of the demonstrators dwindled somewhat as the day wore on and the details of the deal began to emerge.
One poignant image captured in Kiev on Friday showed a priest holding a cross and quietly praying near the ruins of the Trade Union building. In Washington, there was relief. “The United States welcomes the agreement signed today,” the White House said in a statement. “Now, the focus must be on concrete action to implement this agreement, which we will be monitoring closely.”
President Obama telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukrainian crisis shortly after the agreement was signed, officials said.
Putin, who has not yet weighed in on the deal, was a strong backer of Yanukovych. And the power struggle in Kiev was seen as a Cold War battle between Russia and the West over who would influence Ukraine.
White House spokesman Jay Carney, hoping to ease tensions between Washington and Moscow, insisted it was not.
“This is not about the United States and Russia or the West and Russia,” Carney said. “This is about Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and their desire for the right to choose their own destiny.”
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel — after several days of trying — finally spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart to make sure that country’s army stays in its barracks.
“Minister Lebedev assured the secretary that the Ukrainian armed forces remain the protectors of the Ukrainian people,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.
The peace deal calls for the formation of a national unity government within 10 days and a presidential election by December.
The newly emboldened Ukrainian parliament then voted to restore the 2004 constitution, which reduces the power of the president and gives them more control. The parliament also approved an amnesty for the demonstrators who defied Yanukovych.
Th The Uk Ukrainian i i uprising ii erupted three months ago after Yanukovych, under pressure from Putin, suddenly refused to sign a long-awaited free trade agreement with the European Union.
Ukrainians, already frustrated with the increasingly dictatorial Yanukovych regime, accused their president of selling out to Russia and rose up in revolt.
Yanukovych retaliated by siccing his security services — and thugs hired by government to crack heads known as “Titushki” — on the demonstrators.