The February 21 agreements to end the political crisis in Ukraine were signed by Yanukovych and opposition leaders Vitaly Klitschko (Udar Party), Arseniy Yatsenyuk (Batkivshchyna), and Oleh Tyahnybok (ultranationalist Svoboda Party) in the presence of German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, and Eric Fournier, director of the Continental Europe Department at the French Foreign Ministry.
Although the agreement guaranteed by the EU powers appeared to be solid, it barely lasted 24 hours: on February 22, 2014, the buildings of the presidential administration, the Verkhovna Rada, and the Cabinet of Ministers were seized by violent protesters. The Maidan leaders appointed Oleksandr Turchynov as head of the Verkhovna Rada in violation of the country's constitution, effectively ousting Yanukovych.
Yanukovych went on the air from Kharkiv on February 22, 2014, and insisted that he would not resign: "I am a legally elected president. What is happening is fragrant vandalism and banditry and a coup d'etat," he said.
Nonetheless, EU leaders openly signaled that they would work with the "new government" of Ukraine, thus destroying the agreements they had previously supported.
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