KIEV, Ukraine — The embattled president of Ukraine and leaders of the opposition signed a political deal on Friday aimed at ending a spiral of lethal violence with early elections and a reduction in presidential powers, but Russia declined to endorse the accord, and many protesters said nothing short of the president’s resignation would get them off the street.
In a further sign of President Viktor F. Yanukovych’s diminished influence, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to allow the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been imprisoned for more than two years. In a 310-to-54 vote, lawmakers decriminalized the actions for which she was incarcerated.
It was not immediately clear when Ms. Tymoshenko might be released from a penitentiary in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she has been serving her sentence. But she is still considered one of Mr. Yanukovych’s most potent adversaries.
The vote aimed at releasing her came hours after word of the political deal reached between Mr. Yanukovych and the main opposition leaders.
Kiev: Triage in Crisis
In the Ukrainian capital, triage centers have sprung up around Independence Square, where dozens of people have died in the fighting.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister and part of a European team that has been pushing for a settlement, said a council representing some protesters in Independence Square in Kiev, the focal point of months of protests, had endorsed the hard-fought deal in a vote, with 34 voting in favor and only two against.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, one of three opposition members of Parliament who signed the accord with Mr. Yanukovych, acknowledged that it might not go down well with protesters who want Mr. Yanukovych gone, but said they could be persuaded.
“We need to explain, and we need to not only explain, we need to act,” he said after marathon negotiations at the presidential administration building mediated by European and Russian diplomats. “People will never trust any kind of signature. People will trust real action.”
A bigger problem could be a refusal by Russia’s representative to join the Europeans in signing the accord, which suggested Moscow might work to undo the deal through economic or other pressure. “I am upset that the Russians are not signatories,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said. “I am really upset.”
Previous settlements and truces have broken down several times, engulfed by wild bursts of violence on the streets of Kiev, the capital, and in other parts of the country, particularly western regions where antigovernment sentiment has always been strong.
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