Ukrainian Parliament Votes to Allow Release of Jailed Yulia Tymoshenko

Ukraine’s newly empowered parliament has voted to allow the release of jailed opposition figure Yulia Tymoshenko.

It has voted to remove interior minister Vitali Zakharchenko, widely blamed for ordering police violence against protesters.

Legislators in the Verhovna Rada fired Zakharchenko on Friday evening after a fast-moving day of efforts to defuse months of political crisis.

The votes came shortly after the parliament restored new powers to itself by reinstating a 10-year-old constitution that limits presidential authority.

Zakharchenko is deeply despised by the protesters, whom he calls extremists.

Ukraine’s opposition leaders signed a deal Friday with the president and international mediators for early elections and a new government in hopes of ending a deadly political crisis. The parliament also restored the constitution that limits presidential powers.

The signing came hours after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych made concessions under pressure from European mediators.

European foreign ministers had stayed up all night in Kiev trying to negotiate an end to the standoff, prompted when the president aborted a pact with the European Union in November in favor of close ties with Russia instead.

An EU official in Brussels said that if an agreement is signed, Russia and the EU would act as observers to ensure that it is implemented.

The U.S., Russia and European Union are deeply concerned about the future of Ukraine, a nation of 46 million that has divided loyalties between Russia and the West. Shots were heard again Friday near the protesters’ camp in Kiev, a day after the deadliest violence in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history. It is unclear who was targeted and whether anyone was hurt or injured in Friday’s incident.

Protesters across the country are upset over corruption in Ukraine, the lack of democratic rights and the country’s ailing economy, which just barely avoided bankruptcy with the first disbursement of a $15 billion bailout promised by Russia.

The violence is making Ukraine’s economic troubles worse. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Ukraine’s debt rating Friday, saying the country will likely default if there are no significant improvements in the political crisis, which it does not expect.