KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 30 -- Representatives of presidential challenger Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday broke off talks to resolve a presidential succession crisis, and Yushchenko's supporters tried to swarm parliament in support of their candidate.
Political maneuvering in parliament almost led to chaos when thousands of people advanced on the building after a series of votes appeared to strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the declared winner of the contested presidential election.
A crowd including candidate Viktor Yushchenko, at right holding paper, keeps two Yushchenko backers from entering parliament. Thousands advanced on the building after votes favoring declared presidential winner Viktor Yanukovych.
(Mykola Lazarenko -- Reuters)
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The increasingly volatile brinkmanship drew European mediators back to Kiev in an apparent effort to salvage negotiations between supporters of the two candidates, who both claimed victory after the presidential runoff election on Nov. 21. The negotiations have been reduced to a public exchange of dueling proposals and rejections instead of constructive private talks. Added to the standoff was the role of President Leonid Kuchma, who seemed to be formulating a new election in which Yushchenko and Yanukovych would not be eligible.
The political crisis developed after Yushchenko charged that the runoff was fraudulent and that he, not Yanukovych, was the winner. International election monitors agreed the vote had been tainted.
Javier Solana, foreign policy chief of the European Union, returned to Kiev on Tuesday night, and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski was to arrive Wednesday morning. The men planned to meet separately with Kuchma and the two candidates, hoping to draw each side to the negotiating table as they did last week.
Solana headed directly to Kuchma's residence from the Kiev airport, the Reuters news agency reported. "I am sure that with goodwill from everybody, we will make progress in the coming days," Solana said.
Visiting Ottawa, President Bush said he had spoken to Kwasniewski by telephone in support of the European effort. "Our common goal is to see the will of the Ukrainian people prevail," Bush told reporters during meetings in Canada with Prime Minister Paul Martin.
In Berlin, a German government statement said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed in a telephone conversation with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that the results of any new election would be respected, the strongest indication yet of Russian willingness to accept new balloting as part of a compromise deal. But a Kremlin statement on the same conversation did not mention a new election and instead said a "solution to the crisis should be found using democratic means, that is by observing the law, and not under external or internal pressure on a political whim."
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Supreme Court for a second day heard arguments on charges from the Yushchenko campaign that the Nov. 21 election was marked by such widespread fraud that the Central Elections Commission should not have validated it. Some opposition leaders had hoped the court would quickly endorse their position, but the hearings have been prolonged. Moreover, some judges Tuesday questioned post-election decisions by the Yushchenko campaign, which apparently failed to formally challenge local results within the time period required by law.
The near-confrontation at parliament developed when legislators rejected a proposal by Yushchenko's supporters that would have dismissed Yanukovych as prime minister. Later, 232 of 450 members supported a resolution to cancel a parliamentary vote last Saturday that declared the election results invalid. That prompted some Yushchenko supporters to try to enter the building. Yushchenko and the speaker of the parliament, Volodymyr Lytvyn, stood together and managed to turn them back as they tried to barge past police.
"Please do not storm the parliament, which is the only functioning center of power in the country," said Lytvyn, who said the chamber would resume debate Wednesday.
The Yanukovych campaign went on the offensive Tuesday, proposing a series of compromises. Yanukovych said that he was willing to push through long-discussed political reforms that would transfer major presidential powers to the prime minister. In conjunction, Yanukovych said that as president, he would accept Yushchenko as the newly empowered prime minister.
But Yanukovych also said that if the Supreme Court upholds charges of electoral fraud in eastern Ukraine, he plans to challenge the validity of the vote in the western part of the country, Yushchenko's stronghold. He said if the court rules the electoral process was tainted, he and his opponent should step aside and allow a new election.
"We need to overcome the crisis," Yanukovych said. "I propose that neither Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko nor I participate in the [new] election if the result of the vote will be declared falsified," he said.
Yanukovych's wife also spoke out on the political standoff, charging in a speech Monday night that pro-Yushchenko protesters massed in Independence Square in central Kiev had been drugged by oranges "full of narcotics." Orange is the color of the Yushchenko campaign, and the fruit has been handed out in the square. A spokeswoman for Yushchenko's campaign said Ludmila Yanukovych's comments weren't worthy of a response.
Yushchenko said the only relevant issue is the validity of the vote. "The election was rigged," he said, speaking to reporters after Yanukovych's offer. "People are asking whether this country has a political elite capable of upholding a fair vote. . . . As long as this problem is not solved, all the other problems are secondary."
Yanukovych's supporters in the eastern region stepped back from threats to break away from the rest of the country if Yushchenko assumed the presidency. Anatoliy Bliznyuk, the governor of Donetsk, said Tuesday that his region is seeking "to become a republic within Ukraine," not to break away and seek a union with Russia.
In other developments, officials said the political crisis was affecting the country's economy. Ukraine's national bank acted to prevent a run on the country's banks by limiting dollar transactions and withdrawals from accounts.
Staff writer Dana Milbank in Ottawa contributed to this report.
