GLOBALPOST LIVE BLOG: NEW ERA FOR UKRAINE

UPDATE: 2/25/14 5:15 PM ET

Signing off

This live blog is now closed. Please check here for further developments.

UPDATE: 2/25/14 5:10 PM ET

YanukovychLeaks

From Senior Correspondent Dan Peleschuk:

A team of Ukrainian journalists have dug through Yanukovych's abandoned palace and are collecting any documentation they can find on corruption and graft. Of course, it's called "YanukovychLeaks."

UPDATE: 2/25/14 5:00 PM ET

Klitschko throws his hat in the ring

One of the protests' opposition leaders, boxer-turned-politician Vitali Klitschko, has announced he will run for president.

Here's more from Reuters:

One of the stars to emerge during this unrest was Vitali Klitschko, a heavyweight world champion boxer who became one of the three major protest leaders.

The tall 42-year-old has managed to use his sporting credentials to bridge traditional divides in Ukraine between the more nationalist West and pro-Russia East and South, and as such enjoys wide popularity.

Klitschko announced Tuesday he would stand for president in polls set for May 25, shortly after the electoral commission officially kicked off the campaign for elections.

UPDATE: 2/25/14 4:20 PM ET

Who's in charge?

Senior Correspondent Dan Peleschuk reports from Kyiv:

KYIV, Ukraine — Men respect them, women feed them, and all the young ladies want their photos taken with them.

They’re Kyiv’s masked and armored “self-defense” forces, and they’re the most popular authority around town.

After police and security forces largely withdrew from the capital last week, these volunteer civilians — helmeted heroes to protesters, their erstwhile saviors from sniper fire and police brutality — were left in charge of keeping the peace.

Wielding baseball bats and clad in bulletproof vests, they still man the battle-scarred barricades around Independence Square.

But now they’re also guarding parliament and other parts of the capital, sometimes in tandem with regular police.

Protesters’ deep distrust of law-enforcement agencies means these volunteers have a popular mandate.

UPDATE: 2/25/14 11:20 AM ET

Yanukovych now has a reason to be on the run

Reuters — Ukraine's parliament voted on Tuesday to send fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych to be tried for 'serious crimes' by the International Criminal Court once he has been captured.

A resolution, overwhelmingly supported by the assembly, linked Yanukovych, who was ousted on Saturday and is on the run, to police violence against protesters which had caused the deaths of more than 100 citizens from Ukraine and other states and injured 2,000.

The resolution said two of Yanukovych's close allies — former interior minister Vitaly Zakharchenko and former prosecutor-general Viktor Pshonka who are also being sought by the authorities — should also be sent for trial at the ICC, which is based in The Hague.

Over the three months of street unrest and anti-government protests, it said, authorities under Yanukovych had systematically abused their power.

Methods of torture, used by police against protesters, included holding activists naked in temperatures of 15 degrees below freezing, it said.

"Parliament asks the International Criminal Court to hold Viktor Yanukovych and other high-level people criminally responsible for "issuing and carrying out openly criminal orders," it said.

Here is one video that captured the police stripping activists in below freezing temperatures (NSFW):

Police Ministry apologise for abuse of naked #euromaidan protester. No mention of prosecution and punishment #Ukraine http://t.co/zDswgZAiY3

— Maxim Tucker (@MaxRTucker) January 24, 2014

If Yanukovych officially wanted man, why nothing on official police, govt sites about this? MPs tell @KyivPost "I'm surprised too."

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 25, 2014

Ukrainian people doing job of govt, it seems. No official wanted posters around Kyiv. Just these. via @Vasyl_Gatsko pic.twitter.com/gpP4fkDMFt

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 25, 2014

UPDATE: 2/25/14 11:00 AM ET

Tymoshenko: Exit stage left

Former prime minister and recently freed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is headed to Germany.

A statement on her website read: "Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has accepted the offer of treatment from German Chancellor Angela Merkel."

She will reportedly be treated at Berlin's Charite Hospital.

Since her release, there has been speculation about whether Tymoshenko would play a political role in Ukraine's future.

Right after leaving prison, a wheelchair-bound Tymoshenko headed to Kyiv's Independence Square to tell protesters, "You are heroes."

.@AFPphoto's first images of Yulia Tymoshenko in Kiev's Independence Square. Live report: http://t.co/SseKRqvVgZ pic.twitter.com/X2MWSvtSNa

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) February 22, 2014

Even out of office, she isn't far from power at the moment. The acting president, Olexander Turchynov, is in fact Tymoshenko's close confidante.

Her lawyer clarified on Monday that she had not yet made a statement about running for Ukraine's presidency, as some media reported.

She has, however, ruled out becoming the prime minister.

"I am grateful for the respect this shows, but I ask not to be considered for this post," she said on her website.

In other words, thanks, but no thanks.

UPDATE: 2/25/14 10:20 AM ET

Interim president warns of separatism

Olexander Turchynov, the man chosen to be Ukraine's interim president, warned of the risk of separatism in the aftermath of the clashes and President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster.

While speaking to parliament, Turchynov called separatism in regions with large ethnic Russian populations a "serious threat."

This from The Telegraph's correspondent who's in the Crimean region:

No one has any idea what is going on in Sevastopol. Crowd milling around city administration grinding the rumour mill. Lovely day though.

— Roland Oliphant (@RolandOliphant) February 25, 2014

This was the scene yesterday, in the town of Sevastopol:

Massively angry crowd outside city hall in Sevastopol. Several hundred maybe a thousand.

— Roland Oliphant (@RolandOliphant) February 24, 2014

Want city council to appoint a mayor and "executive committee" independent of "illegitimate govt installed by fascists and bandits" in Kiev.

— Roland Oliphant (@RolandOliphant) February 24, 2014

New Russian flags on Sevastopol's Town Council building. #Crimea #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/qS5uzWOccm

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) February 24, 2014

Flying the Russian flag in Sevastopol pic.twitter.com/XP7LjxjqRV

— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) February 25, 2014

UPDATE: 2/24/14 5:00 PM ET

What comes next?

Ben C. Solomon and Nadia Parfan take a look at what Ukrainians hope for the future, in this video from Kyiv.

And with that, we sign off on today's live blog. You can follow further developments on our Ukraine Twitter list.

UPDATE: 2/24/14 1:35 PM ET

A larger bloodbath planned?

MP alleges Yanukovych administration planned even greater bloodbath to suppress #Kyiv protests http://t.co/j63nD0O5ur pic.twitter.com/cCLbmlUysW

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 24, 2014

Hennadii Moskal, a member of recently released Yulia Tymoshenko's party, alleged that Yanukovych and his top law enforcement official had a larger, more sinister plan for Kyiv's Independence Square.

According to the Kyiv Post, "the plan called for surrounding Kyiv’s Independence Square with rooftop snipers whose mission would have been to wipe out the anti-government EuroMaidan protesters. Moskal said he obtained documents outlining the plan and released part of them publicly on his Facebook page in order to ensure that law enforcement officers bring criminal charges against Yanukovych and others responsible for the plan."