Carnage ends: Ukraine ushers in new era
Parliament appoints a pro-Western interim leader on Sunday.
KIEV:
A new era dawned in Ukraine on Sunday as parliament appointed a pro-Western interim leader. Lawmakers voted Oleksandr Turchynov – a close ally of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was released from her seven-year jail sentence a day before – as interim president tasked with forming a new government by Tuesday. Turchynov immediately vowed to draw up a ‘government of the people’ and warned Russia that he expected the Kremlin to respect his country’s pivot. New interior minister Arsen Aviakov announced the launch of a probe into police killings of protesters, while ousted Viktor Yanukovych was dealt another blow when his own party condemned him for issuing ‘criminal orders’ that led to so many deaths. His whereabouts remain a mystery amid speculation that he was hiding out in the pro-Russian east.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2014.
A new era dawned in Ukraine on Sunday as parliament appointed a pro-Western interim leader. Lawmakers voted Oleksandr Turchynov – a close ally of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was released from her seven-year jail sentence a day before – as interim president tasked with forming a new government by Tuesday. Turchynov immediately vowed to draw up a ‘government of the people’ and warned Russia that he expected the Kremlin to respect his country’s pivot. New interior minister Arsen Aviakov announced the launch of a probe into police killings of protesters, while ousted Viktor Yanukovych was dealt another blow when his own party condemned him for issuing ‘criminal orders’ that led to so many deaths. His whereabouts remain a mystery amid speculation that he was hiding out in the pro-Russian east.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2014.