Ukraine leader, protesters announce truce 

UKRAINE'S embattled president and leaders of the protests that have been roiling the country have agreed on a truce to halt the violence that has killed 26 people.

A protest leader was quoted as saying the government pledged not to attack an opposition encampment in central Kiev while further negotiations unfold.
President Viktor Yanukovych met with opposition leaders and the two sides agreed to halt the violence and to hold talks on ending bloodshed, a statement on the presidential website said.
The statement did not give any further details.

Vitali Klitschko, one of the leaders of the protests that have sought to keep Ukraine open to Europe and out of a close political and economic alliance with Russia, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Yanukovych agreed that there would be no attempt to storm the protesters' encampment on the main square of downtown Kiev.
"There is good news. A truce has been declared now and a negotiating process to stabilise the situation has begun," Arseni Yatseniuk, leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party said.
"After today's meeting we can safely affirm that they (the security forces) will not disperse our Maidan," he said, referring to the opposition encampment in Kiev's Independence Square.
"The main thing is preserving human life."
Klitschko, Yatseniuk and another main opposition figure, Oleh Tyahnibok, convinced Yanukovych that an attempt to clear the square by force would have resulted in numerous deaths, according to press accounts.
Countering the truce sentiment was imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who issued a call from jail for the uprising to continue.
"We must eliminate the dictatorship now and for evermore," the former prime minister vowed.
Flames from burning barricades of tyres and rubbish leapt into the air at the square for a second night, as protesters demanding Yanukovych's resignation showed no sign of yielding.
The truce announcement came hours after the president replaced the army chief and the military vowed an anti-terrorist operation to restore order across the country.
Officials have often referred to the protesters who have demanded Yanukovych's resignation for months as "terrorists".
The recent violence has been the worst in nearly three months of anti-government protests that have paralysed Kiev.
The two sides are locked in a battle over the identity of the country of 46 million, whose loyalties are divided between Russia and western Europe.
The protests began in late November after Yanukovych turned away from a long-anticipated deal with the European Union in exchange for a $US15 billion ($A16.71 billion) bailout from Russia.
Three EU foreign ministers - from Germany, France and Poland - were heading to Kiev on Thursday to speak with both sides before an emergency EU meeting back in Brussels to consider sanctions against those responsible for the recent violence in Ukraine.
US President Barack Obama also stepped in to condemn the violence in Kiev, warning on Wednesday "there will be consequences" for Ukraine if it continues.
The US has raised the prospect of joining with the EU to impose sanctions against Ukraine.
The US also deployed restrictions on visas for 20 Ukrainian officials it considers responsible for the repressive actions, a senior State Department official said.
Russia's foreign ministry, in turn, described the violence as an attempted coup and even used the phrase "brown revolution," an allusion to the Nazi rise to power in Germany in 1933.
The ministry said Russia would use "all our influence to restore peace and calm".
Meanwhile, NATO warned Ukraine to keep its army out of the crisis.
"I strongly urge the Ukrainian government to refrain from further violence," NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement on Thursday.
"If the military intervenes against the opposition, Ukraine's ties with NATO will be seriously damaged."
Yanukovych's sudden change in the leadership of the military's general staff caused unease in the US, which said it had lost contact with senior security force leaders in Ukraine with whom it had been keeping steady contact.
"No one is picking up the phone on the Ukrainian side," said a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the two agreed to do everything possible to prevent further escalation, Merkel said.
According to the Kremlin, Putin demanded that foreign forces stop their charges against the Ukraine government.
The "extreme terrorist" actions of radical government opponents must be harshly dealt with, he said.
In Kiev, Ukraine's top security agency accused protesters on Wednesday of seizing hundreds of firearms from its offices and announced a country-wide anti-terrorist operation to restore order.
Demonstrators, meanwhile, forced their way into the main post office on Kiev's Independence Square after a nearby building they had previously occupied was burned down in fierce, fiery clashes late on Tuesday with riot police.
Thousands of activists armed with fire bombs and rocks had defended the square, a key symbol of the protests.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said on Wednesday that at the heart of the crisis shaking Ukraine were deep economic problems and the country should seek help from the International Monetary Fund.
"At the core, they have an economic crisis and they are going to need to deal with it," Lew said.
"And the mechanism that's best for Ukraine to deal with it would be to come to the IMF and to have a package where they put in place economic reforms, where they get the support that they need, in exchange for the steps to fix the economy."

source-www.news.com