With No Sign of Resolution, Ukraine President Takes Sick Leave

KIEV, Ukraine — The tents stayed up and the fire barrels kept burning in Kiev’s central Independence Square on Thursday as President Viktor Yanukovych announced he would take sick leave.

Yanukovych is taking time away due to “acute respiratory disease accompanied by fever,” according to a statement on the president’s website, citing a deputy head of the state affairs department on medical issues. The protests continued to swell despite a new law granting amnesty to some anti-government protesters

The statement gave no indication as to when the president might return to work, creating a potential power vacuum after more than two months of civil unrest and violence in the nation's capital and many regional centers. The president has been under serious pressure since late November, when protests broke out here following his decision to back out of a deal with the European Union that would have deepened ties between the former Soviet state and the 28-member bloc. Read more...