Ukrainian lawmakers must form a new government by Tuesday, the parliament speaker announced on Sunday, a day after deputies voted to oust President Viktor Yanukovych in a dramatic twist in the crisis sweeping the country.
Lawmakers also voted to hand Yanukovych’s luxury private estate on the outskirts of Kiev to the state. Speaker is given presidential duties and sets MPs Tuesday deadline by which to appoint new cabinet and prime minister, according to some reports.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Viktor Yanukovych remained a mystery, after authorities claimed they had prevented the embattled leader from escaping the country and said he may be hiding out in the east, which is broadly pro-Russian and where concerns remain over the potential for unrest.
And while life creaked back to normal in central Kiev for anti-Yanukovych protesters occupying the capital’s Independence Square -- where curious onlookers paid their respects to those who died under police fire this week — the focus abroad shifted to rebuilding a battered country on the verge of default.
At a G20 gathering in Sydney, the United States and International Monetary Fund offered to assist Ukraine in rebuilding its economy following a three-month protest movement that dramatically escalated this week with the deaths of nearly 100 people in clashes between demonstrators and security forces.
US treasury secretary Jacob Lew emphasized that the United States, working with other countries including Russia, ‘stands ready to assist Ukraine as it implements reforms to restore economic stability and seeks to return to a path of democracy and growth’.
Fears that Ukraine’s debt-laden economy is facing default have sparked panic on markets, with bond yields rising sharply and the hryvnia currency losing a tenth of its value in the span of a few weeks.
The spiralling crisis prompted Yanukovych to sign a western-brokered peace deal Friday with the opposition, which then took over parliament and ushered in huge political changes — including a vote to free Yulia Tymoshenko, the fiery 53-year-old hero of the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution
Yanukovych’s arch-nemesis, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in jail for ‘abuse of power’ after his election in 2010.
Shortly after the parliament vote on Saturday, she was freed from hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she had been treated under guard, and headed straight to Kiev and Independence Square where she was greeted by an emotional, 50,000-strong crowd.
Hailing the end of a ‘dictatorship’, she said in a tearful voice late in the evening: ‘You are heroes, you are the best of Ukraine.
‘I did not recognize Kiev, the burnt cars, the barricades, the flowers, but it’s another Ukraine, the Ukraine of free men,’ she said, sitting in a wheelchair suffering from chronic back problems, her face drawn after two-and-a-half years in jail.
Her appearance on the square would have been unthinkable just a few days ago, much like the fate of Yanukovych himself. On Saturday, police, parliamentary allies and members of his Regions Party deserted the president one by one.
The army issued a statement saying it ‘will in no way become involved in the political conflict’ and the police force declared itself in support of ‘the people’ and ‘rapid change’.
Lawmakers also voted to hand Yanukovych’s luxury private estate on the outskirts of Kiev to the state. Speaker is given presidential duties and sets MPs Tuesday deadline by which to appoint new cabinet and prime minister, according to some reports.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Viktor Yanukovych remained a mystery, after authorities claimed they had prevented the embattled leader from escaping the country and said he may be hiding out in the east, which is broadly pro-Russian and where concerns remain over the potential for unrest.
And while life creaked back to normal in central Kiev for anti-Yanukovych protesters occupying the capital’s Independence Square -- where curious onlookers paid their respects to those who died under police fire this week — the focus abroad shifted to rebuilding a battered country on the verge of default.
At a G20 gathering in Sydney, the United States and International Monetary Fund offered to assist Ukraine in rebuilding its economy following a three-month protest movement that dramatically escalated this week with the deaths of nearly 100 people in clashes between demonstrators and security forces.
US treasury secretary Jacob Lew emphasized that the United States, working with other countries including Russia, ‘stands ready to assist Ukraine as it implements reforms to restore economic stability and seeks to return to a path of democracy and growth’.
Fears that Ukraine’s debt-laden economy is facing default have sparked panic on markets, with bond yields rising sharply and the hryvnia currency losing a tenth of its value in the span of a few weeks.
The spiralling crisis prompted Yanukovych to sign a western-brokered peace deal Friday with the opposition, which then took over parliament and ushered in huge political changes — including a vote to free Yulia Tymoshenko, the fiery 53-year-old hero of the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution
Yanukovych’s arch-nemesis, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in jail for ‘abuse of power’ after his election in 2010.
Shortly after the parliament vote on Saturday, she was freed from hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she had been treated under guard, and headed straight to Kiev and Independence Square where she was greeted by an emotional, 50,000-strong crowd.
Hailing the end of a ‘dictatorship’, she said in a tearful voice late in the evening: ‘You are heroes, you are the best of Ukraine.
‘I did not recognize Kiev, the burnt cars, the barricades, the flowers, but it’s another Ukraine, the Ukraine of free men,’ she said, sitting in a wheelchair suffering from chronic back problems, her face drawn after two-and-a-half years in jail.
Her appearance on the square would have been unthinkable just a few days ago, much like the fate of Yanukovych himself. On Saturday, police, parliamentary allies and members of his Regions Party deserted the president one by one.
The army issued a statement saying it ‘will in no way become involved in the political conflict’ and the police force declared itself in support of ‘the people’ and ‘rapid change’.