Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said late Wednesday he and protest leaders had agreed to a "truce" following several days of violent clashes that left at least 26 dead.
A statement from Yanukovych’s office also said both sides had agreed to begin negotiations "aimed at cessation of bloodshed and stabilization of the situation."
The announcement, which gave no details of how a truce would be implemented, followed a second night of deadly clashes between Ukraine dissidents and police.
Vitali Klitschko, one of the leaders of the protests that have sought to keep Ukraine open to Europe and out of a close political and economic alliance with Russia, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Yanukovych agreed that there would be no attempt to storm the protesters' encampment on the main square of downtown Kiev.
Earlier Wednesday, Yanukovych fired his military chief and the military announced it could take part in a national anti-terrorist operation to restore order.
That move, announced in a decree from Yanukovych, came a day after 26 people were killed and nearly 425 injured in clashes between police and protesters at the sprawling protest camp in central Kiev.
According to Reuters, former economy minister Arseny Yatseniuk, one of the opposition leaders, said in a statement on the website of his Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party: "The storming of the Maidan (Independence Square) which the authorities had planned today will not take place.
''A truce has been declared. The main thing is to protect human life."
President Obama, speaking at a news conference in Mexico Wednesday night at the end of the North American Leaders Summit, said that while he hoped the truce "may hold," ultimately the government "is responsible for making sure that we shift toward some sort of unity government, even if it's temporary," Reuters reported.
Obama called earlier Wednesday for Ukraine’s military to refrain from using violence against its own people and said the United States would be watching how the Eastern European nation handled the lethal escalation in the country.
Also Wednesday, EU member states reached a consensus about imposing sanctions on Ukrainian officials, Poland's deputy foreign minister Piotr Serafin told reporters. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he expects the EU to adopt "targeted measures against those responsible for violence and use of excessive force."
The protests began in late November after Yanukovych froze economical ties with the European Union in exchange for a $15 billion bailout from Russia, but the political maneuvering continued and Moscow later suspended its payments. Both Moscow and the West have been eager to gain influence over this former Soviet republic.
The Kremlin said it put the latest disbursement of its bailout on hold amid uncertainty over Ukraine's future and what it described as a "coup attempt"; it criticized the West for the escalation of violence.
The recent wave of street violence began Tuesday when protesters attacked police lines and set fires outside parliament, accusing Yanukovych of ignoring their demands to enact constitutional reforms that would limit the president's power — a key opposition demand. Parliament, dominated by his supporters, was stalling on taking up a constitutional reform to do so.
On Wednesday morning, the center of Kiev was cordoned off by police, the subway was shut down and most shops on Kiev's main street were closed. But hundreds of Ukrainians still flocked to the opposition camp, some wearing balaclavas and armed with bats, others, in every-day clothes and with make-up on, carrying food to protesters.
(Fox News)
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