After a fresh wave of deadly violence left at least 70 dead, an agreement aimed at resolving the political crisis in Ukraine has reportedly been reached at talks between opposition leaders and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, the president’s office said on 21 February. A statement on the presidency’s website says a document will be signed at noon local time (1000 GMT, 5 AM EST) Friday.
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met with Yanukovych and main opposition leaders in Kiev on 20 February before emergency talks among EU ministers in Brussels.
The “Weimar Triangle” - a loose grouping ofPoland,Germany, andFrance - first held talks with three oppositions, namely Vitali Klitschko, Arseny Yatseniuk and Oleh Tyahnibok.
Then they went on to talk with Yanukovych, trying to broker a compromise solution between the opposing sides.
Sikorski, Steinmeier and Fabius decided to spend the night in Kiev to continue negotiations and they would miss a special summit in Brussels on 21 February.
Yanukovych has told European foreign ministers that he is open to early presidential and parliamentary elections as a way of resolving Ukraine’s deepening and increasingly violent crisis, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in Warsaw, according to news services.
Meanwhile, the EU agreed on 20 February to go ahead with sanctions that include travel bans and asset freezes imposed on those deemed responsible for the fatal escalation of violence in Ukraine. Russia strongly criticised the move.
Late on 20 February,, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, approved a resolutionto pull back Interior Ministry troops and stop the use of force against protesters.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and later with US President Barack Obama, about the crisis in Ukraine, and the three agreed that they would explore taking joint action.
An immediate end to the violence in Ukraine is critical, Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to NATO and the current director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, toldNew Europeon19 February. “This means the security forces need to pull back and exercise more restraint. And the protestors should be allowed to protest peacefully. If the Weimar group can help bring this about, that would be great,” Volker said.
But the ambassador noted that, after ending violence, Yanukovych needs to create a pathway to transition back to democracy and free and fair elections. “He has lost all legitimacy in governing Ukraine after killing his own citizens. Again - if the Weimar group can help bring about such a pathway, great, although I doubt that Moscow would agree to such a thing,” Volker said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a press conference on 19 February that the attempts made by some Western politicians to blame Russia for the current situation in Ukraine are unacceptable. Lavrov said that the situation should be settled “by the current administration of Ukraine within the framework of the constitutional prerogatives”.
Relations between Russia and the West have further deteriorated over the situation in Ukraine. But Volker told New Europe that they were bad to begin with. “I have no idea what people are talking about when they say ‘damage ties with Moscow.’ Moscow is doing terrible things, whether in Syria, Ukraine, or domestically. And they do it with deliberate, cynical disregard for human values, or the views of the people of those nations, or of the West. What ‘ties,’ exactly?” Volker quipped.
Jeffrey Mankoff, fellow and deputy director of the Russia & Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC,told New Europe that US ties with Russia “are already fairly bad, and Russia’s role in Ukraine will only reinforce US reluctance to deal with Moscow except on issues like Syria where it basically sees no other alternative”.
Given the amount of violence that has unfolded in Kiev already, Mankoff said, it is extremely doubtful anyone can arrange a settlement right now. “Ukraine is probably facing a period of prolonged instability, and any prospect of a deal (at least one that involves Yanukovych) likely collapsed when the police tried to storm Independence Square. The only way out I can see is if enough of the oligarchs backing the Party of Regions force Yanukovych to step down, but even that seems unlikely for the moment,” Mankoff said.
A tense stand-off between riot police and protesters in Kiev on 20 February led to the bloodiest outburst of violence in nearly three months of demonstrations. The protest began in November after Yanukovych backtracked on a trade deal with the EU and tilted toward Russia instead.