Freed Ukrainian Opposition Leader Tymoshenko Rallies Crowds; Yanukovych Vows To Stay In Power
Source: Associated Press
KIEV, Ukraine In a stunning reversal of fortune, Ukrainian opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko left imprisonment Saturday and spoke to a massive, adoring crowd, while her arch-foe President Viktor Yanukovych decamped to eastern Ukraine and vowed he would remain in power.
Protesters took control of the presidential administration building and thousands of curious and contemptuous Ukrainians roamed the suddenly open grounds of the lavish compound outside Kiev where Yanukovych was believed to live. Parliament, which he controlled as recently as a day earlier but is now emboldened against him, on Saturday called for his removal and for elections on May 25. But Yanukovych said he regards the parliament as now illegitimate and he won't respect its decisions.
The political crisis in the nation of 46 million, strategically important for Europe, Russia and the United States, has changed with blinding speed repeatedly in the past week. First there were signs that tensions were easing, followed by horrifying violence and then a deal signed under Western pressure that aimed to resolve the conflict but left the unity of the country in question.
Tymoshenko, whose diadem of blond peasant braids and stirring rhetoric attracted world attention in the 2004 Orange Revolution, was both sad and excited as she spoke to a crowd of about 50,000 on Kiev's Independence Square, where a sprawling protest tent camp was set up in December. Sitting in a wheelchair because of a back problem aggravated during imprisonment, her voice cracked and her face was careworn.
Read more: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/2a369746903d407aa5e5bbc48527d622/EU--Ukraine-Protests
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)hospital treatment for it.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Tymoshenko, who has also been accused of murdering a local politician in 1996, was transferred to a hospital last year after reporting serious back pains. Her daughter, Yevgenia, earlier in the year cited German doctors as saying that her mother could become disabled unless she urgently underwent an operation for her back problems at a Berlin clinic.
http://en.ria.ru/news/20131004/183948611.html