GWEN IFILL (Newshour): In Ukraine, as the battle between government forces and protesters, as we saw, became bloodier and deadlier, diplomats labored behind the scenes to find a way to end the violence.
Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News reports.
LINDSEY HILSUM: They couldn’t even get through the streets. Fighting prevented European Union foreign ministers from reaching the presidential palace in Kiev this morning.
They made it by the afternoon and are reported to be preparing for more talks overnight. President Yanukovych reportedly left the meeting at one point to call President Putin, but there was no deal. The ministers from France, Germany and Poland left and diplomacy moved to Brussels.
E.U. foreign ministers decided to sanction key members of the Ukrainian government, whom they regard as responsible for the violence.
CATHERINE ASHTON, Foreign Policy Chief, European Union: We decided as a matter of urgency we need to look at targeted sanctions. We have agreed to suspend export licenses for equipment for internal repression. And we have asked the relevant working bodies of the council to make the necessary preparations immediately.
LINDSEY HILSUM: The Russian foreign minister, visiting Baghdad, wasn’t impressed.
SERGEI LAVROV, Foreign Minister, Russia (through interpreter): The opposition cannot or doesn’t want to distance itself from extremist groups. Our Western partners and everyone in Europe and the U.S. have thrown the blame on the government of Ukraine, and they do not condemn, as they should, the actions of the extremists. We are very troubled by all that, because the double standards are obvious here.
LINDSEY HILSUM: Ukraine is pulled between Europe to the west and Russia to the east. It became independent in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. A quarter of its 45 million population are Russian speakers, living mainly in the south and east.
The majority, who speak Ukrainian as a first language, dominate the West. Pro-Europe activists in Ternopil, Lutsk, Ivano-Frankivsk have seized control of regional councils, and Lviv has declared independence. Western Ukrainians tend to be Catholic, while easterners are mainly orthodox.
But so far, this is a fight between the state and protesters, not between divided Ukrainians. Outside intervention, though, may fan the flames, as Ukraine becomes the victim of renewed hostility between Russia and the West.
Notice that Yanukovych had to check-in with his puppet-master?
"Has the moment passed for the West to sway Ukraine with sanctions?" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 2/20/2014
Excerpt
SUMMARY: World powers have watched as the Ukrainian conflict has escalated to unrestrained battle. How can they help ensure stability for this country that’s in the heart of Europe while tightly connected to Russia? Gwen Ifill talks to William Taylor, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, and Matthew Rojansky of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
"Ukraine president, opposition agree to early elections, new government" (Part-3) Al-Jazeera 2/21/2014
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has signed a deal with the country’s opposition to hold presidential elections early, form a national unity government and make constitutional changes reducing his powers, diplomatic representatives of both sides said Friday.
Yanukovich announced the proposal earlier on Friday after all-night talks with the opposition and three European Union ministers, aimed at resolving a crisis in which at least 77 people have been killed in gun battles between protesters and police that began Tuesday.
"As the president of Ukraine and the guarantor of the constitution, today I am fulfilling my duty before the people, before Ukraine and before God in the name of saving the nation, in the name of preserving people's lives, in the name of peace and calm of our land," the president said in a statement on his website.
After several hours of silence from the opposition, leader Vitali Klitschko confirmed to the German newspaper Bild that his side would sign the deal but said further talks would be needed to quell protests.
Earlier on Friday, fighting broke out among deputies in parliament when the speaker declared a pause, delaying a debate on a possible resolution calling for Yanukovich's powers to be reduced.
Several deputies exchanged blows as the chamber descended into chaos for several minutes. The speaker, Yanukovich ally Volodymyr Rybak, then left the chamber, but some of the deputies continued the debate.
On the streets, a shaky peace reigned in the protest camps in downtown Kiev after the days of fighting, which left at least 577 injured in addition to those killed. On Friday morning several thousand protesters milled around Independence Square, known as the Maidan, with no visible police forces remaining on the square. Volunteers walked freely to the protest camps to donate food and other aid.
Support for the president appeared to be weakening, as reports said the army's deputy chief of staff, Yury Dumansky, was resigning in "disagreement with the politics of pulling the armed forces into an internal civil conflict."
Yanukovich was expected to "make concessions in order to restore peace," Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted his spokeswoman Anna German as saying.
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