KIEV, February 23 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian parliament voted Sunday to transfer presidential duties to speaker, Oleksander Turchinov, who ordered a national unity government be formed by Tuesday.
Ukraine’s parliament voted Saturday to impeach President Viktor Yanukovych and hold early presidential elections on May 25.
Ukraine's embattled president was reportedly blocked from taking a plane to Russia late Saturday. He abandoned the capital for eastern Ukraine, media reports said.
In the same session of parliament, deputies voted to return Yanukovych’s lavish Mezhyhirya residence, outside Kiev, to state ownership.
Thousands of Ukrainians were given unprecedented access to the 343 acre estate Saturday that features a huge man-made lake, a private zoo, car park and spa.
The parliament also voted to revoke a controversial law that made Russian the official language in parts of the former Soviet republic, where the number of speakers is 10 percent or more. The so-called language law came into force in August 2012.
Updates with language law.
