Hours after government and opposition leaders signed an agreement ending days of deadly fighting, Ukraine's parliament moved quickly to cut the president's powers, sack the interior minister and pass a bill that could free jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
The changes, passed by a
constitutional majority that can't be vetoed, mark a stunning shift from
just a day ago, when President Viktor Yanukovych sent security forces
into the streets to battle protesters angry over his pivot toward Russia
and other issues.
Tymoshenko, a former
prime minister who earlier was a hero of the country's 2004 revolution,
is a powerful symbol to the opposition. She was imprisoned in 2011 after
what international observers saw as a politically motivated sham trial.
She went on a hunger strike the following year after allegedly being beaten unconscious by guards.
The parliamentary action comes after Yanukovych, opposition leaders and
representatives of the European Union signed a deal Friday afternoon
meant to end the country's political crisis and bloody fighting that has
left parts of Kiev a war zone
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