Ukraine's prime minister offered his resignation Tuesday to help bring about an end to more than two months of street protests that turned deadly last week and have taken over government buildings across the nation.
"In order to create additional possibilities for compromise for the sake of the peaceful resolution of the conflict, I've taken a personal decision to ask the president to accept my resignation," Mykola Azarov said in a statement on the Cabinet's website. "The conflict in Ukraine is threatening the country's social and economic development."
President Viktor Yanukovych is struggling to contain unrest that's spread from Kiev to other cities across the nation of 45 million people, a key transit route for Russian energy supplies to Europe. Lawmakers were meeting Tuesday to address the opposition's demand that a bill curbing protest activity be repealed. Opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk has twice rejected an offer from Yanukovych to take his post in the last four days.
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