Ukraine peace agreement signed, election to be set

Ukrainian opposition leaders signed an EU-mediated peace deal with President Viktor Yanukovych on Friday, aiming to end a violent standoff that has left dozens dead and opening the way for an early presidential election this year.

Russian-backed Yanukovych - under pressure to quit from the mass demonstrations in Kiev - earlier offered a series of concessions to his pro-European opponents, including a national unity government and constitutional change to reduce his powers, as well as a new presidential election.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the deal provided for the creation of a national unity government and an early presidential election this year, although no date had been set. The vote had been due in March 2015.

"In these tragic days, when Ukraine has suffered such heavy losses, when people have been killed on both sides of the barricades, I consider it my duty in the light of the holy memory of the dead to declare that there is nothing more important than human life," he said in a written statement published on the presidential website.

"And there are no steps that we should not take to restore peace in Ukraine."

Announcing steps which he said were needed to restore calm and avoid further bloodshed, he said: "I announce that I am initiating early elections."

"I am also starting the process of a return to the 2004 constitution with a rebalancing of powers toward a parliamentary republic," he said. "I call for the start of procedures for forming a government of national unity."

Under that constitution, parliament enjoyed greater control over the makeup of the government, including the prime minister, and the naming of the prosecutor-general.

In the deadliest day since the crisis erupted in November, at least 60 people were killed in fierce clashes in Kiev's Independence Square on Thursday, with police opening fire on protesters carrying makeshift shields while opposition medics said government snipers picked off demonstrators from rooftops.

Three EU foreign ministers and a Russian envoy flew in for emergency talks on Thursday as the international community voiced increasing alarm about the crisis in the country.

(China Daily 02/22/2014 page8)