乌克兰总理辞职议会废除反示威法_时事

乌克兰总理辞职议会废除反示威法

Ukraine's political opposition celebrated the first major victory in its two-month-long standoff with the government as the country's prime minister tendered his resignation Tuesday. But the move appeared unlikely to end the crisis.

Mykola Azarov's resignation came after a week of violent clashes in Kiev, the capital, in which at least four activists were killed, dozens arrested and hundreds injured on both sides. It was the worst street violence in the history of post-Soviet Ukraine.

A short time after his announcement, the parliament rescinded unpopular anti-protest laws in another peace offering to opposition forces bent on the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovich.

Opposition leaders had been negotiating with Yanukovich for four days, demanding that he call elections for the presidency and parliament. In a statement published on the Cabinet's official website, Azarov said that "the scope of the acute and dangerous conflict" compelled him to resign in the hope of enabling a political compromise.

"We have been doing everything to prevent bloodshed, escalation of violence, violations of citizens' rights," the statement said. "For all these difficult years I have been doing my best for Ukraine to develop normally as a democratic European state."

Word of the resignation was met with loud cheers from the thousands of protesters at a tent camp in Independence Square, a staging area for antigovernment protests, as well as those along barricades in central Grushevsky Street, the battlefield of recent days.