WASHINGTON, January 23 (RIA Novosti) – US Vice President Joseph Biden urged Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday to halt the violence between anti-government protesters and Ukrainian security forces, the White House said.
In a telephone call initiated by Biden, the US vice president emphasized to Yanukovych that “only the government of Ukraine can ensure a peaceful end to the crisis” and that “further bloodshed would have consequences for Ukraine’s relationship with the United States,” the White House said.
Two protesters have been officially confirmed dead, and dozens of demonstrators and riot police have been injured as well in clashes in the Ukrainian capital that began late on January 19.
The demonstrations have intensified amid draconian laws that came into force Wednesday and that severely curb the freedom to protest.
Biden underscored that “freedoms of assembly and expression are fundamental pillars of a democratic society and must be protected,” and he urged Yanukovych to immediately de-escalate the violent standoff, the White House said.
Yanukovych’s office noted the telephone call in a brief statement, saying the two men discussed a “peaceful solution of the crisis” and that the Ukrainian president “shared his opinion on measures that would facilitate stabilization of the situation.”
The US mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), meanwhile, said in a statement to the organization’s permanent council Thursday that the United States is “alarmed by the deaths of demonstrators and the continued escalating violence taking place.”
“We urge the Government of Ukraine to listen to the voices of its people and lay a path towards a free, democratic and prosperous future,” the US mission said in the statement. “Simply put, the people of Ukraine want and deserve better.”
The two confirmed deaths of protesters this week marked the first fatalities in anti-government rallies that began in late November when Yanukovych pulled away from an association agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow.
Russia has accused the United States and the EU of meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs by offering vociferous support for the demonstrators, while officials in the West allege that Russia used economic levers to blackmail Kiev into spurning closer integration with Europe.
