Ukraina valde Ryssland före EU - stora protester som följd, länkar i inlägg2

In another sign of how the nation is changing power, 314 out of 450 lawmakers voted to elect Batkivshchyna Party opposition leader Oleksandr Turchynov as acting prime minister.

Parliament voted with 322 votes to immediately free ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison in Kharkiv. She is expected to come to Independence Square in Kyiv once she is released. Parliament also voted to name Arsen Avakov as interior minister in charge of the nation's police. Parliament also voted to replace Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka.

Svoboda Pary's opposition leader Oleh Tiahynbok suggests the Verkhovna Rada needs to vote to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from power today and also to disband the Berkut riot-police officer and form a "new, truly patriotic structure" that will defend people. Parliament voted to take a break and resume their work at 4 p.m. today

A member of the Afghanistan veterans who is guarding Independence Square in Kyiv says the national revolution will continue. "Everyone in the government and parliament must get away. It's too bad that President Viktor Yanukovych ran away. He should have been caught and brought here, to Maidan." When asked about Rada's latest decisions, making Oleksandr Turchynov acting prime minister and Arsen Avakov interior minister in charge of police, he said: "Let's give them a chance and we'll see. Someone has to take care of the mess now."

Regional lawmakers in Ukraine's pro-Russian east are questioning the authority of the national parliament, amid concerns that the nation may be splitting in two.

A gathering of governors, provincial officials and legislators in Kharkiv approved a statement Saturday calling on regional authorities to take full responsibility for constitutional order on their territory.

Some called for forming volunteer units to protect against force by protesters from pro-European western regions. The assembly urged the army units deployed on their territories to maintain neutrality and protect ammunition depots.

The moves came after protesters took control of Ukraine's capital and parliament sought to oust the president and form a new government.

Leaders of mainly Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine that are loyal to President Viktor Yanukovich challenged the legitimacy of the national parliament on Saturday and said they were taking sole control of their territories.--

Mikhaylo Dobkin, Governor of Kharkov region in northeast Ukraine, told regional leaders meeting in the city of Kharkov: "We're not preparing to break up the country. We want to preserve it."

But a resolution adopted at the meeting said: "The decisions taken by the Ukrainian parliament in such circumstances cause doubts about their ... legitimacy and legality."

It added: "The central state organs are paralyzed. Until the

constitutional order and lawfulness are restored ... we have decided to take responsibility for safeguarding the constitutional order, legality, citizens' rights and their security on our territories."