Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko urged president Viktor Yanukovich's opponents not to abandon their protests in central Kiev even though parliament has voted to oust him.
In an emotional speech to thousands of protesters in Kiev’s Independence Square after she was carried on to a stage in a wheelchair, she said: “You have no right to leave the Maidan (square)... Don’t stop yet.”
Ms Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, was released earlier today from the hospital where she had been held under prison guard for much of the time since she was convicted in 2011 on charges of abuse of office. Supporters say the case was politically motivated.
Sporting her distinctive blonde braid, the 53-year-old former prime minister was driven out of the hospital in the northeastern city of Kharkiv where she had spent much of her confinement since 2011.
She waved to supporters, who chanted “Yulia, Yulia!”
“Our homeland will from today on be able to see the sun and sky as a dictatorship has ended,” she told reporters.
Ms Tymoshenko's Fatherland party said she would go to Kiev's Independence Square, scene of nearly three months of protests against Mr Yanukovich after he spurned a deal on closer ties with the European Union in favour of former Soviet master Moscow.
Seventy-seven people were killed in two days of carnage on and around the square this week.
The EU brokered a peace deal yesterday, calling for an election by year-end, but protesters made clear they wanted Mr Yanukovich out immediately.
The United States welcomed her release and pledged to work with Russia and European and international organizations to support a unified and democratic Ukraine.
“We have consistently advocated a de-escalation of violence, constitutional change, a coalition government, and early elections, and today’s developments could move us closer to that goal,” the White House said in a statement.
In a day of high drama, parliament voted to remove Mr Yanukovich from office and set an election for May 25th, after the president fled the capital and abandoned his offices and residence to protesters.
Regretting the deaths of anti-Yanukovich protesters in gun battles and clashes with police, Ms Tymoshenko said everything must be done so that “each drop of blood was not spilled in vain.”
Ms Tymoshenko was jailed in 2011 for abuse of office over a gas deal with Russia but her supporters and Western leaders regarded her as a political prisoner.
A fiery orator, Ms Tymoshenko shot to fame during the 2004-5 Orange Revolution that overturned a rigged election won by Yanukovich. She became prime minister, but was forced out after Mr Yanukovich beat her to the presidency in 2010. (Reuters)