'The dictatorship has fallen,' Tymoshenko says upon release from custody
Thomson Reuters Posted: Feb 22, 2014 3:01 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 22, 2014 3:30 PM ET
CBC NEWS
Protests in Maidan Square, Kyiv LIVE 11:59:59
UPDATED
* Parliament votes to oust President Viktor Yanukovych
* Security forces now declining to take part in conflict
* Opposition figure Yulia Tymoshenko released from prison
* President and opposition sign deal meant to end crisis
* President Yanukovych leaves capital for pro-Russian eastern Ukraine
* Yanukoych accuses opposition of conducting a coup
* MPs replace speaker, interior minister
Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko urged President Viktor Yanukovich's opponents on Saturday not to abandon their protests in central Kyiv even though parliament has voted to oust him.
In an emotional speech to thousands of protesters in Kyiv's Independence Square after she was carried on to a stage in a wheelchair, she said: "You have no right to leave the Maidan (square)... Don't stop yet."
Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, was released earlier on Saturday from the hospital where she had been held under prison guard for much of the time since she was convicted in 2011 on charges of abuse of office. Supporters say the case was politically motivated.
Her speech was briefly interrupted by a heckler but she later carried on addressing the crowd. Some people welcomed her speech but others whistled.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian parliament declared Yanukovych constitutionally unable to carry out his duties, voted to remove him from office, and set an early election for May 25.
Deputies in the assembly stood, applauded and sang the national anthem to mark the milestone manoeuvre — just hours after the heads of four Ukrainian security bodies, including the police's Berkut anti-riot units, appeared before legislators and declared they would not take part in any conflict with the people.
As Tymoshenko left the hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she has been under guard for most of the time she spent in custody, she declared “the dictatorship has fallen.”
Tymoshenko announced her plans to run for president and said "no drop of blood that was spilled will be forgotten."
Her release was made possible by a European-brokered peace deal reached Friday between Yanukovych and the opposition.
Despite moves to sideline Yanukovych, he has vowed not to resign or leave the country.
In an interview with a Ukrainian television station he described the situation in the protest-wracked country as a "coup d'etat" and likened the country`s three-month-old political crisis to the Nazis' rise to power.
The security bodies balking at remaining part of the conflict represent the paratroop unit of the military, the Berkut anti-riot police, Alfa special operations unit and military intelligence.
The interior ministry had already signalled its allegiance to anti-government protests under a new minister from the ranks of the opposition.
Earlier Saturday, protesters seized Yanukovych's Kyiv office, further signalling that the pro-Russian leader's grip on power rapidly eroded following bloodshed in the capital.
Protesters entered the president's compound in the capital and were controlling the entrance. Security guards were present inside the building but were not trying to expel the protesters.
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Yanukovych's residence outside the capital was also abandoned, and journalists were freely able to enter, local media reported.
"When we got to the residence there were already hundreds of people in a crowd waiting to get in. Since then there has been thousands and thousands of average Ukrainians waiting to get into the palace," CBC's Susan Ormiston said.
"It's like family day at the presidential residence. There's been no looting, no attempts to break in. [People were] absolutely respectful of the property. People have been walking on the stone paths, not on the grass," she said.
Hanna Herman, a close ally of the president, said Yanukovych was visiting Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, the heart of his support base, and has no intention of leaving the country.
The gates to the president's office, meanwhile, remain, locked but it's "apparently no longer guarded by police," CBC's Margaret Evans reported from outside the presidential palace.
Opposition leader Olexander Turchinov told Reuters that Yanukovich is at "an unknown location" and that Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko has also "disappeared."
"That's why for now in Ukraine the only legitimate body of power is parliament of Ukraine," he said.
The parliament on Saturday elected opposition legislator Arsen Avakov to be the country's interior minister until a new coalition government is formed.
Yanukovych, who enraged much of the population by turning away from the European Union to build closer ties with Russia three months ago, made sweeping concessions in a deal brokered by European diplomats on Friday after days of violence that killed 77 people.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who helped broker Friday's agreement, said it's now important to rebuild trust.
"The question is whether this succeeds," he said.
The deal, which called for early elections by the end of the year, was not enough to satisfy demonstrators who want Yanukovych out immediately after bloodshed that saw his police snipers shooting from rooftops.
Ally of Tymoshenko elected speaker
The speaker of parliament, a Yanukovych loyalist, resigned. Parliament has quickly acted to implement the deal, voting to restore a constitution curbing the president's powers and change the legal code to allow his arch-foe, Tymoshenko, to go free.
Oleksander Turchynov, a senior member of Tymoshenko's Fatherland party, was chosen by members of parliament as the new speaker.
Events were moving at a rapid pace that could see a decisive shift in the future of a country of 46 million people, away from Moscow's orbit and closer to the West, although Ukraine is near bankruptcy and depends on Russian aid to pay its debt.
"Today he [Yanukovich] left the capital," opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, a retired world heavyweight boxing champion, told an emergency session of parliament debating an opposition motion calling on the president to resign.
"Millions of Ukrainians see only one choice — early presidential and parliamentary elections." Klitschko then tweeted that an election should be held no later than May 25.
At the president's office in the capital, Ostap Kryvdyk, who described himself as a protest commander, said some protesters had entered the offices but there was no looting.
"We will guard the building until the next president comes," he told Reuters. "Yanukovych will never be back."
With files from CBC News and The Associated Press
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-s-tymoshenko-says-carry-on-with-protests-1.2547352
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