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Protesters lit tires aflame during clashes with riot police in Kiev. It was unclear if they would accept the president’s concessions. Volodymyr Shuvayev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
KIEV, Ukraine — In a striking concession aimed at defusing Ukraine’s civil uprising and preserving his own grip on power, President Viktor F. Yanukovych on Saturday offered to install opposition leaders in top posts in a reshaped government, but they swiftly rebuffed the offer to the delight of thousands of protesters on the street craving a fuller victory in the days ahead.
With mass protests spreading across the country, Mr. Yanukovych proposed one opposition figure, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, as prime minister and another, the former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, as vice prime minister for humanitarian affairs. Mr. Yatsenyuk is a leader of Fatherland, the party of Mr. Yanukovych’s archrival, the jailed former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko.
“No deal,†Mr. Yatsenyuk wrote on Twitter, addressing Mr. Yanukovych as thousands of angry protesters streamed to the still-occupied Independence Square, undeterred by the biting cold. “We’re finishing what we started,†he added. “The people decide our leaders, not you.â€
President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine, second from left, talked with opposition leaders in Kiev on Saturday. Mykhailo Markiv/Presidential Press Service, via Associated Press
In a speech from the stage on the square, and in a news conference afterward, Mr. Yatsenyuk expressed more flexibility, but insisted that the embattled president was no longer in a position to dictate the terms of a deal. “We have our conditions,†he said, “not your conditions.â€
Those conditions, Mr. Yatsenyuk said, would include reconsideration of the far-reaching political and free trade agreements with the European Union that Mr. Yanukovych had promised to sign, but then abandoned. That decision set off the protests in late November. Mr. Yatsenyuk also said that Ms. Tymoshenko must be released from prison as European leaders have insisted.
Many demonstrators on the streets of Kiev, the capital, including some involved in violent clashes with the police, have been demanding Mr. Yanukovych’s resignation, which he did not offer. And the fury of the crowd made clear that the leaders would almost certainly have faced a mutiny had they accepted the deal.
“Shame!†some chanted as Mr. Yatsenyuk began his remarks by saying that the opposition was not afraid to lead the country. Others shouted, “Betrayer!â€
In a further complication, some of the most aggressive demonstrators are supporters of the nationalist Svoboda Party and its leader, Oleg Tyagnibok, who took part in the talks with Mr. Yanukovych but was not offered a position.
Mr. Klitschko, who leads a party called the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform, said that protesters would remain on the streets as negotiations continued.
Mr. Yanukovych’s willingness to remove Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who has been his staunch ally through the more than two-month-long civic uprising, underscored just how much pressure he has been facing to contain the crisis.
His offer came as protests continued to spread across the country on Saturday, with efforts to occupy or blockade government buildings underway in at least a dozen cities besides Kiev. In recent days, it has become increasingly clear that the elite Berkut riot police and other Interior Ministry troops are outnumbered and would face enormous challenges if asked to enforce a state of emergency.
Late Friday night, a fragile truce had disintegrated in Kiev and the city again was convulsed in violence.
In a move that suggested that his offers were more than theatrics aimed at dividing the opposition, Mr. Yanukovych also said he would be willing to roll back constitutional changes made at his direction that broadly expanded the powers of the presidency earlier in his term.
He also agreed to make changes to a package of new laws that severely suppress political dissent, including freedoms of speech and assembly, which Mr. Yanukovych’s backers rammed through Parliament on Jan. 16. And he reiterated his offer to free all detained protesters who have not been charged with serious crimes.
At his news conference late Saturday, Mr. Yatsenyuk said talks with Mr. Yanukovych would continue. “We do not reject the offer,†he said, “but we do not accept it.â€
The concessions were announced in a statement on the presidential website on Saturday after a negotiation session lasting more than three hours. The leadership changes were offered in a portion of the statement attributed to the minister of justice, Olena Lukash, who took part in the talks.
Ms. Lukash said that Mr. Yanukovych had also agreed to engage in a public debate with Mr. Klitschko, who has said he plans to challenge Mr. Yanukovych in the presidential election next year.
Mr. Yanukovych’s offer also called for reshaping the Central Election Commission to give opposition parties more influence — a step that is seen as important to preventing election fraud, which has been a persistent problem in Ukrainian balloting.
Still, there seemed to be some strategizing in Mr. Yanukovych’s proposal, by offering the prime minister post to Mr. Yatsenyuk, rather than to Mr. Klitschko, who is more popular in public opinion polls and is likely to pose a sharper challenge in next year’s presidential campaign.
Even before the three opposition leaders could return to Independence Square from the talks at the presidential headquarters, violence flared in the main conflict zone, near the Dynamo soccer stadium. Tires were once again set ablaze on the street, and protesters clashed with special police units inside Ukraine House, a public conference center nearby.
Before offering the concessions, Mr. Yanukovych was pressed by two of the nation’s wealthiest men, the so-called oligarchs who control Ukraine’s industry and economy and also wield influence in Parliament. Both men warned, in separate statements, that Ukraine was in danger of splintering.
System Capital Management, a conglomerate owned by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, regarded as a close ally of Mr. Yanukovych, issued a statement lamenting the loss of life in recent days and offering condolences.
“Business cannot keep silent when people are killed; a real danger of breakup of the country emerges; when a political crisis can lead to a deep economic recession and thus inevitably result in lower standards of living,†the statement said. “It is only by peaceful action that the political crisis can be resolved. Any use of force and weapons is unacceptable.â€
Another billionaire, Petro Poroshenko, a member of Parliament who is viewed as a potential future presidential candidate, issued a statement calling on lawmakers loyal to Mr. Yanukovych to join with opposition leaders to reach a compromise.
“Ukraine has never faced such a big threat,†Mr. Poroshenko said. “It’s no longer a political crisis. It’s a crisis of statehood. In danger are the lives of our fellow citizens, civil peace and territorial integrity.â€
“Anyone who fails to see it or denies it,†he added, “is either blind or a provocateur.†Mr. Poroshenko later appeared on the stage with the opposition leaders in Independence Square.
Protesters gathered in the freezing cold made no secret of their displeasure with Mr. Yanukovych’s offer and their lack of trust in politicians, even those who have been leading the protest effort, like Mr. Yatsenyuk.
“If he accepts this offer, he will be a betrayer,†said Volodymyr, declining to give his last name, an unemployed economist from the western city of Ivan-Frankivsk, who was wearing a helmet and respirator, common among those who have been at the center of clashes with the police. “If they accept it, they will all be political corpses,†he said, Before word came of Mr. Yanukovych’s concessions, opposition leaders had been bracing for a declaration of a state of emergency, which they warned would only lead to further bloodshed.
Saturday also brought news that a protester injured during battles with the police had died in a Kiev hospital, raising the confirmed death toll to four.
After Mr. Yanukovych backed away from the political and free trade agreements with Europe, he turned to Russia, which agreed to provide $15 billion in loans and discounts on natural gas to stave off an economic collapse that some experts warned was imminent. With its money on the line, Russia has also expressed consternation about the spreading protests.
On Saturday, mass demonstrations and sieges of public buildings spread to at least three more cities, with thousands of protesters occupying the regional administration building in Vinnytsia, a city in central Ukraine about 90 miles from the border with Moldova. Demonstrators also blocked a government building in Chernihiv, north of Kiev, near the border with Belarus, and held a large rally in Poltava, about 200 miles southeast of Kiev.
Those actions, combined with the violence in the capital, drew pleas — both domestically and from abroad — for calm and for a peaceful solution.
Adrian Karatnycky, an expert on Ukraine at the Atlantic Council of the United States, a research group, said that the opposition leaders would almost certainly want guarantees of changes to the Constitution before agreeing to any deal.
“This is a first off from Yanukovych, a sign he has blinked,†Mr. Karatnycky said. “The concessions Yanukovych has made are signs that his base wants to sue for peace. But the offer is not enough, as there is no trust in him.â€
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