Ukraine Leader Offers Concessions

The nation’s embattled president backed down Tuesday in the face of political and economic demands by hundreds of thousands of striking miners and factory workers.

As part of a series of concessions, President Leonid Kravchuk acceded to demands to hold a referendum on his own leadership and new elections to the widely discredited Parliament.

The week-old strike by miners at up to 226 mines and by state employees at dozens of enterprises has crippled output throughout industrialized eastern Ukraine, as well as sharpened the country’s political crisis. Kravchuk and Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma have been wrangling for weeks over who should govern this former Soviet republic of 52 million people.

The strikers did not respond immediately to Kravchuk’s concessions, but their initial reaction appeared to be dissatisfaction.

The strike was sparked by a fourfold hike in basic food prices--on bread, milk and meat. But the miners, prompted by their regional political leadership, also attached political conditions to their demands for a raise in salaries and pensions and an end to salary delays.

Local political leaders want economic autonomy for the region and, worryingly for the Kiev leadership, closer links with Russia.