Protesters have seized government buildings in scores of other cities in the European-leaning western part of the country.
Protesters have seized government buildings in scores of other cities in the European-leaning western part of the country.Osman Karimov/Associated Press

Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s statement Saturday several hours after Yanukovych’s offer of the premiership leaves the adversaries in Ukraine’s two-month-long political crisis still jockeying for position.

Yanukovych’s offer, coming as protester anger rises and spreads from the capital to a wide swath of the country, appeared to have been both a concession and an adroit strategy to put the opposition in a bind.

Accepting the offer could have tarred Yatsenyuk among protesters as a sell-out but rejecting it would make him appear obdurate and unwilling to seek a way out of the crisis, short of getting everything the opposition wants.

The opposition seeks Yanukovych’s resignation, early elections and the repeal of harsh anti-protest laws that set off a paroxysm of clashes between demonstrators and police during the past week.

Yanukovych has called for a special session of parliament Tuesday and said it could discuss repealing those laws.

“Tuesday is judgment day,” Yatsenyuk told a large crowd of protesters on Independence Square. “We do not believe any single word. We believe only actions and results.”