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 Ukraine
anti-government protesters call brief truce for new talks
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[January 23, 2014]
KIEV (Reuters) — Anti-government
protesters in Ukraine agreed on Thursday to a truce of several hours in
clashes with police while new talks took place between opposition
leaders and President Viktor Yanukovich, Interfax news agency said.
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 Protesters, who have been bombarding police with petrol bombs and
cobblestones in Kiev since Sunday, told opposition leader Vitaly
Klitschko they would suspend further action until 8 p.m., the agency
said.
Klitschko is one of three opposition leaders who has been leading
demonstrations against Yanukovich since November, when he pulled out
of signing a free trade deal with the European Union in favour of
closer economic ties with Russia.
The unrest swelled into peaceful mass rallies against the four-year
rule of Yanukovich which turned violent on Sunday when hard-core
radicals broke away from the main protest area in the capital Kiev
and clashed violently with riot police.
Three people have been killed on the side of protesters — two of
them from gunshot wounds — and more than 150 police have been
injured in the worst street violence in post-war Kiev.
Interfax said protesters agreed after Klitschko went to the
barricades where protesters are confronting police from behind a
curtain of black smoke from burning tyres and appealed to them to
observe a truce until 8 p.m.
The new round of talks between Yanukovich and Klitschko, former
economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and far-right nationalist Oleh
Tyahnibok were due to begin at 3 p.m., opposition sources said.
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In an initial round of talks on Wednesday, Yanukovich refused to
make any real concessions to opposition leaders' demands for the
dismissal of his government and repeal of sweeping anti-protest laws
rammed through parliament by Yanukovich loyalists last week.
(Writing by Richard Balmforth; editing by Timothy Heritage)
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