Following a day of extraordinary drama, Ukraine woke up to a new and uncertain power configuration on Sunday, with the whereabouts of the impeached president, Viktor Yanukovych, still unclear and Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister, already lining up a shot at the presidency.
The Ukrainian parliament held a special session the day after Yanukovych's dismissal to vote its speaker, Oleksandr Turchynov, as interim president. Turchynov, a former head of Ukraine's state security service, is a close confidant of Tymoshenko and deputy leader of her Fatherland party. He will remain in the role until elections on 25 May.
Tymoshenko, who may be eyeing a run for the presidency she last contested in 2010, said in comments on her website that she did not wish to be interim prime minister. "I am grateful for the respect this shows, but I ask not to be considered for this post," she wrote, following her supporters in parliament saying she was one of three favourites to head a government of national unity.
While an interim prime minister is yet to be appointed, MPs meeting in the emergency session set about dismantling Yanukovych's power strucutre.
His foreign minister, Leonid Kozhara, who defended his Yanukovych's swerve away from the European Union in the face of an outcry in the west, was one of the first to go, followed by education minister Dmitry Tabachnik, an unpopular figure accused by many of bringing a pro-Russia interpretation of Ukrainian history to classrooms.
Police and security chiefs addressing parliament announced orders for the detention of Yanukovych's tax minister Oleksander Klimenko - a particularly close ally - and his prosecutor-general, Viktor Pshonka.
Yanukovych, however, was still claiming to be president as of Saturday evening, although those willing to stand by him diminished by the hour as his aides fled Ukraine and the president himself was accused by border officials of a failed attempt to fly out of the country.
The president fled the capital in the early hours of Sunday, and later in the day parliament voted to strip him of his powers, and impeach him. He appeared on television from an undisclosed location on Saturday evening, likening the actions of his opponents to those of the Nazis and saying he would battle to stay in power. However, the army said it would not get involved, and police in key eastern areas said they were "with the people".
In eastern Ukraine and Crimea there was fury at events in Kiev, and all eyes will now be on Russia, where the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, labelled the opposition "rampaging hooligans" and called on Europe to rein them in.
There are fears that, with Yanukovych losing control of the west of the country and Kiev, Russia may attempt to promote separatist movements in Crimea, which is largely ethnically Russian. Cities in the region were planning pro-Russian rallies on Sunday.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, said that the UK and its European Union allies would support a new government "as and when it is formed" and urged politicians in Ukraine to work together. He warned Russia against intervening in Ukraine's "complex" crisis, saying London wanted to contribute to an international economic programme aimed at shoring up the "desperately difficult" situation of the Ukrainian economy.
In a dramatic twist, Tymoshenko was set free on Saturday evening, heading straight to Kiev where she hailed the gathered protesters as "heroes" and urged them to continue their fight until change had been secured.
Tymoshenko was jailed in 2011 for "abuse of office", in a trial many said was Yanukovych's revenge against his arch-rival. She spent much of her sentence under armed guard in a hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv being treated for back problems. however, many of those on Independence Square regard her with suspicion, and want new faces in the next government.
On Friday, three EU foreign ministers met Yanukovych and opposition leaders, and agreed to presidential elections by the end of 2014. Within hours parliament began passing a series of resolutions, stripping Yanukovych of his powers, initiating impeachment proceedings and setting elections for 25 May.
Source: theguardian
