Ukraine protesters have taken control of the Kiev office of president Viktor Yanukovych, and with his whereabouts a mystery the country's interior ministry says the police now stand by "the people" and want "rapid changes".
The ministry's about-turn comes just days after security forces fired on anti-government protesters in clashes that left nearly 100 dead.
"The police is at the service of the people and completely shares its aspirations for rapid changes," it said.
"We pay homage to the dead," it added.
Meanwhile, the country's opposition leader Vitali Klitschko says Mr Yanukovych has left the capital and urged parliament to pass a resolution calling on him to resign "immediately" over this week's deadly violence.
Mr Klitschko has also called for elections by May 25, not by the end of December as proposed in a peace agreement struck on Friday that promised early elections and a coalition government.
A line of anti-government demonstrators, many in hard-helmets and holding bats, were on Saturday guarding the entrance to Mr Yanukovych's office.
Security guards were present inside the building but were reportedly not trying to expel the protesters.Mr Yanukovych's residence outside the capital was also abandoned, and journalists were freely able to enter, local media reports.
A security source said the president was still in Ukraine but was unable to confirm whether he was in Kiev.
The ABC's Europe correspondent Philip Williams reports from outside Mr Yanukovych's office that "all sense of the administration within central Kiev has disappeared".
"I am literally standing a few metres from the front door of the presidential palace," he says.
"I could not have got anywhere near here until this morning but this area and large areas of central Kiev are firmly in control of the protesters.
"It appears at the moment that Kiev gradually bit by bit is being taken over by the protesters and this is happening, we're told by the protesters, in other cities as well."
'Yanukovych has left Kiev': Vitaly Klitschko
Mr Yanukovych, who enraged much of the population by turning away from the European Union to build closer ties with Russia three months ago, made sweeping concessions in a deal brokered by European diplomats on Friday after days of violence that killed as many as 77 people.
But the deal, which called for early elections by the end of the year, was not enough to satisfy demonstrators who want him out immediately after bloodshed that saw his police snipers shooting from rooftops.Parliament has quickly acted to implement the deal, voting to restore a constitution curbing the president's powers and change the legal code possibly allowing his arch-foe, jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, to go free.
It also elected a close ally of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to the powerful speaker's post on Saturday - Oleksander Turchynov, a senior member of Ms Tymoshenko's Fatherland party - replacing a Yanukovych loyalist who resigned on Saturday, citing ill-health.
Mr Turchynov was elected by 288 votes in the 450-seat parliament.
Events were moving at a rapid pace that could see a decisive shift in the future of a country of 46 million people, away from Moscow's orbit and closer to the West, although Ukraine is near bankruptcy and depends on Russian aid to pay its debt.
"Today he (Yanukovych) left the capital," opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, a retired world heavyweight boxing champion, told an emergency session of parliament debating an opposition motion calling on the president to resign.
"Millions of Ukrainians see only one choice - early presidential and parliamentary elections."
Mr Klitschko then tweeted that an election should be held no later than May 25.
However, a senior security source said of Mr Yanukovych: "Everything's ok with him ... He is in Ukraine."
Asked whether the leader was in the capital, the source replied: "I cannot say."
The UNIAN news agency, meantime, cited Anna Herman, a lawmaker close to Yanukovich, as saying the president was in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
No looting in takeover of Yanukovych's offices
At the president's office in the capital, Ostap Kryvdyk, who described himself as a protest commander, said some protesters had entered the offices but there was no looting.
"We will guard the building until the next president comes," he told Reuters.
"Yanukovich will never be back."Williams concurred, describing the protesters' takeover of the compound as "very orderly".
"It is very impressive the way people have organised themselves here," he said.
"It is really a military-style operation, literally, the communications and the set-ups.
"There are divisions, there are units, there are lines of authority, it's not disorganised at all.
"They are very determined that the buildings here will not be touched, will not be ransacked, that there'll be no revenge attacks if they can avoid it."
World leaders call for end to violence
The peaceful mood marked difference to Thursday, when at least 39 people were killed in clashes in the square.
British prime minister David Cameron said the deal signed was a real chance to stop the "downward spiral into the nightmare" otherwise facing the country.US president Barack Obama has discussed the European Union-brokered agreement with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
The State Department says their hour-long phone call was constructive, with both leaders urging all sides to refrain from more violence.
White House spokesman Jay Carney says Washington's focus is now on working with its European partners as well as the government and opposition in Ukraine to ensure the agreement is implemented.
"It is in Russia's interest for the violence to end in Ukraine, as it is in the interest of the United States and our European friends, and of course, most importantly, the Ukrainian people, and we welcome the cessation of violence, and we welcome the agreements that have been reached," he said.
"And the measures that have been passed through the parliament, we're still at an implementation stage, and we monitor this very closely."
NEWS SOURCE:http://www.abc.net.au/
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