Truce announced
At least 26 people have died in clashes in
the capital Kiev this week.
Announcing
the truce on late on Wednesday, the presidential statement said it was agreed
to "start negotiations aimed at stopping the bloodshed, stabilizing the
situation in the country and achieving social peace", reports BBC.
Thursday has been declared a day of mourning for the dead.
Crisis talks and possible sanctions
Foreign
ministers from France, Germany and Poland are to hold crisis talks in Ukraine
after deadly clashes this week.
The three EU ministers will then fly to
Brussels for a crisis meeting with EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton and
other EU foreign ministers, where the issue of sanctions may be discussed.
These
might include a ban on equipment that could be used for internal repression.
The
Ukrainian opposition has been long pressing the EU and US to impose sanctions
against senior government officials believed to be responsible for the violence
against protesters.
The
EU has so far refrained from such a move, instead stressing that dialogue and
compromise was the best way out of Ukraine's crisis.
Meanwhile,
the US state department announced on Wednesday it had imposed visa bans on 20
members of Ukraine's government.
A
senior state department said all those were civilians whom Washington held
responsible for the violence. The official declined to provide any names.
Other developments:
- President Yanukovych sacked the armed forces
head, Col Gen Volodymyr Zamana, replacing him with the navy commander, Adm
Yuriy Ilyin. No reason was given for the dismissal
- US President Barack Obama warned there "will be
consequences" for anyone who steps over the line in Ukraine - including
the military intervening in a situation that civilians should resolve. He also
expressed hopes that the truce "may hold"
- Russia characterised the violence as an "attempted coup"
by extremists Visa bans
