Text of agreement on early VR elections

President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Speaker Oleksandr Moroz on Sunday morning signed their joint statement to defuse Ukraine's political crisis.

Full text in English here.

BBC Ukrainian make an interesting point:

The joint statement includes this: "The sides have agreed to....3. accept that this election will be held to implement the President’s decree based on paragraph 2 of article 82 of the Constitution of Ukraine"

Paragraph 2 article 82 says: "The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is competent on the condition that no less than two-thirds of its constitutional composition has been elected."

In the president's April 2nd ukaz #264 dismissing the VR, article 82 was not mentioned at all. Nor was it mentioned in subsequent ukaz #355. So it looks as if the PM and VR speaker have not recognised the grounds stated in the president's ukazes as being sufficient for early elections to be called.

151+ VR [opposition?] deputies have now to rip up their mandates..something they could have done many weeks ago, thus avoiding many of the problems of the last few weeks..