Ukrainian rival leaders hold talks amid unrest

UKRAINE’S pro-Western president Viktor Yushch- enko held crisis talks last night with his prime minister, as a deepening power struggle between the two rivals brought thousands onto the streets in protest.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who favours closer ties with Russia, refused to comment after four hours of talks.

Earlier in the day, he had condemned the president’s decision to dissolve parliament as “a fatal mistake” and urged an emergency session of the legislature to defy the order and keep working.

He also threatened to force an early presidential election if the dissolution order was not rescinded.

The growing political turmoil in Ukraine prompted expressions of concern from Russia and the EU, both of whom stressed the need for compromise.

The rival leaders met as thousands of chanting, flag- waving protesters gathered outside parliament to voice opposition to the president’s decree, which Mr Yush- chenko announced in a televised speech late Monday.

He also called snap legislative elections for May 27.

The decree came into force when it was published yesterday in the official gazette, but Mr Yanukovych called on parliament to stand fast, and 53 deputies from his ruling coalition asked the constitutional court to declare the dissolution order illegal.

The only possible way “of remedying the president’s fatal mistake is waiting for a decision by the constitutional court,” Mr Yanuko- vych told legislators in a session broadcast live.

“Until such a decision is made, the government should work as usual.”

The numbers of anti- Yushchenko activists near the parliament building dropped to hundreds in early evening, but organisers promised at least 5,000 would hold an overnight vigil.

Overnight on Monday, lawmakers from the pro- Russian parliamentary majority voted to dissolve the central electoral commission and block election funding.

At a stormy cabinet meeting, Defence Minister Anatoly Grytsenko, one of Mr Yushchenko’s two supporters in the government, broke with the rest of cabinet to back the president, saying the Ukrainian army would follow his orders.

Mr Yushchenko, however, ruled out the use of force, saying in a statement that his “conflict” with Mr Yanuko- vych was political in nature.

“Politicians should resolve their conflicts according to the political will,” he said.

The protests in Kiev, which came after mass demonstrations on Saturday, were reminiscent of the 2004 Orange Revolution that brought Yushchenko to power and distanced Kiev from Moscow for the first time in the post-Soviet era.