The two sides in Ukraine’s bitter election crisis failed to reach agreement last night, amid growing signs that the country, already paralysed by the week-long protest, was slipping into chaos.
After nearly three hours of emergency talks the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, said prime minister Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko would continue negotiations, but had reached no further agreement to resolve the impasse.
Addressing his supporters afterwards, Yushchenko demanded a new election and said that he had rejected Yanukovich’s proposal to let the courts decide on alleged irregularities in Sunday’s run-off.
”We will only hold talks on staging a new vote,” he said. ”The prime minister cannot hear you. He is offering things which drive Ukraine further from a solution to this political crisis.”
Yushchenko said that a solution must be found within days, and told the crowd not to leave the central square where they had gathered until they had achieved ”victory”.
Meanwhile Yanukovich, looking disgruntled, left the palace without comment, it was reported.
George Bush warned that the world was watching Ukraine’s political crisis ”very closely”.
”There’s just a lot of allegations of vote fraud that placed the result of the election in doubt,” he said.
The government appeared last night to have lost control of the centre of Kiev to the supporters of Yushchenko, who is backed by the west.
They were blockading government offices, and increasing numbers of police began to join the protesters, some pledging support to the crowd from the stage in Kiev’s Independence Square.
The opposition set up an alternative security committee which began issuing decrees yesterday, and discussed creating a cabinet of ministers.
Yanukovich, who is backed by Russia and is claiming victory in the fraud-ridden election, also brought in supporters by rail from the country’s eastern industrial half.
But last night their number had already begun to dwindle. At a small demonstration by the main station, one miner said: ”We got a request from the boss to come here two days ago. We’re going home now and another group are coming to replace us.”
A 600-strong forum of delegates from regional assemblies in Donetsk, the country’s industrial powerhouse loyal to Mr Yanukovich, called on the Donetsk regional assembly to consider declaring the region an autonomous state – which would cause economic mayhem.
The Donetsk mayor, Alexander Lukyanchenko, said: ”If they don’t clear people out of Kiev squares on Saturday and Sunday, we should, in an orderly constitutional way, stage a referendum of trust to determine this country’s make-up.” Envisaging an east-west split, he said: ”We can live without that half [of the country], but can they live without us?”
In Lugansk, a resolution was passed to set up a ”south-east republic” and calling for a general strike in the city today.
Yanukovich yesterday urged on his thousands of supporters who had been brought into the capital. ”We must do everything so that an unconstitutional coup in Ukraine does not happen,” he said.
He said the blockades were ”provoking us to take response measures”, but added: ”I believe in our strength, I believe in the law, I believe in the constitution. The life of each person is dear to me, and I do not want any power if blood is spilled.”
The miners brought in by Yanukovich feared they would lose their jobs if Yushchenko, a free-marketeer, took power, allowing cheaper Polish coal into the country.
One mine director, Mikhail Bugara, said Yushchenko and his allies ”cooked this porridge, and now we will see how they will manage to eat it”.
Kuchma, a vital backer of Yanukovich, was also dismissive of what he called ”this so-called revolution”.
The mediation talks were organised by Kuchma with help from the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, the Polish president Alexander Kwaniewski, and an envoy of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Solana said that Yushchenko’s proposal for a new election would be discussed today. ”Without doubt a third election is a possibility,” Mr Solana said. – Guardian Unlimited Â