Updated Jan. 30, 2014 2:28 p.m. ET
Demonstrators in Kiev’s center warm themselves Thursday, as opposition leaders declared they have no intention of leaving the encampments. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
KIEV, Ukraine—Ukraine’s president and his opponents accused one another of sabotaging efforts to end the political crisis Thursday, as an unexpected presidential sick leave further damped hopes for compromise.
President Viktor Yanukovych’s absence was quickly denounced by his opponents as a case of executive malingering in a country where politicians have in the past delayed one another in parliament by throwing eggs, padlocking the doors and body-blocking the rostrum.
The Ukrainian president’s office issued a statement saying Mr. Yanukovych, 63, is taking time off from work because of a fever and respiratory illness. The statement didn’t indicate when he would return to work.
Mr. Yanukovych’s unusual absence came amid signs the Ukrainian president is digging in against opponents who seek his ouster. An aide said power remains firmly in his hands, and he departed without signing key legislation passed by parliament this week that was designed to allay opponents by retracting laws that stiffened penalties for street protests.
Mr. Yanukovych is coming under pressure from Russia to stand up to his Westward-leaning opponents, who began protests two months ago after he abruptly scuttled plans to sign an agreement that would have deepened ties with the European Union.
The Kremlin said it is holding back some of the $15 billion aid package it offered to Ukraine last year. It said it first needed to understand the composition of Mr. Yanukovych’s new cabinet, which he has moved to reshuffle in a bid to placate protesters.
But Mr. Yanukovych also appears to be facing resistance among his allies as he attempts to hold an otherwise hard line toward the protests. Mr. Yanukovych’s opponents quickly called his absenteeism a delay tactic with the apparent hopes that subzero temperatures in Kiev might wear down the resolve of antigovernment protesters who have been camped out in the center of the capital.
“The president’s sickness is a political disease,” the opposition party UDAR, led by boxer-turned-politician Vitali Klitschko, said. “This is a withdrawal from political crisis” that will give him a pause from “urgent decisions.”
In an address published on his website, Mr. Yanukovych signaled he didn’t intend to make any further concessions demanded by protesters.
“Authorities fulfilled all obligations that they took upon themselves,” he said, including an amnesty law for protesters passed by parliament late Wednesday. He also accused the opposition groups of escalating the situation for their own political ends.
Mr. Yanukovych has at times appeared isolated as he has tried to face down a protest movement that is demanding snap elections that would almost certainly end in his political demise. Lately he has had difficulty persuading delegates of his own political party to pursue a hard line.
On Thursday, demonstrators sat near a fire at a barricade erected by antigovernment protesters near the site of clashes with riot police in Kiev. Reuters
Late Wednesday, he made a rare appearance in parliament where legislators were considering granting amnesty to protesters who have been detained since protests began.
During intense negotiations, he persuaded his party instead to back an amnesty that was contingent on protesters leaving buildings they occupy in Kiev and some western cities.
Opposition leaders denounced the law on Thursday, and they said they had no intention of giving up control of the center of Kiev.
“We have put in far too much effort into putting up these barricades” to take them down, said Andrei Paruby, a protest leader who manages the downtown encampment, speaking to a Ukrainian news service. “On them are the icons to people who died.”
—Katya Gorchinskaya contributed to this article.
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com
See more here: Ukraine Leader’s Leave Called Delay Tactic
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