KIEV, May 12 – Ukraine’s largest opposition parties said on Saturday they will impeach President Viktor Yanukovych, free opposition leaders from jail and resume a pro-European foreign policy course upon winning parliamentary elections in October.

The declaration was made at a forum of Batkivshchyna, led by jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and the Front for Changes, led by former Parliamentary Speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk.

“The first thing that the new democratic Parliament will do is it will liquidate Yanukovych’s monarchy,” Yatseniuk, who is set to lead the united opposition group for the elections, said. “The new Parliament will approve a law on impeachment, and Yanukovych will be the first to be impeached.”

The forum, at the Mykhaylivska square in downtown Kiev, is the first major gathering of the opposition forces after their unification last month.

The unification deal allowed Yatseniuk to lead the united opposition group for the elections, while Oleksandr Turchynov, Tymoshenko’s closest ally, will be the election campaign chief.

The deal is widely seen among politicians as the only chance for the opposition groups to defeat Yanukovych’s Regions Party at the October elections.

Tymoshenko, the most popular opposition leader, was jailed to seven years in prison in October 2011 for abuse of power during her time as the prime minister in 2009. The verdict, seen by many as politically motivated, does not allow her to run for a seat in Parliament.

In a letter written from jail and read by her daughter at the forum, Tymoshenko said Ukraine will have to approve a number of laws that will make it easier for people to recall the president and other elected officials from their posts.

“I am ready to suggest a working way” of making this happen, Tymoshenko said in the letter. “I have drafted the entire concept of legal system reform and will shortly deliver this report to the country.”

The opposition groups also vowed to reduce taxes to help the country overcome economic crisis, and to change the system of government by reducing the role of the central government and allowing local governments keep up to 70% of all tax revenue.

“Only the required minimum should be channeled to the central budget,” Tymoshenko said. It’s because today the central government is conducting not the state policy, but is totally robbing the country in favor of its own offshore companies.”

As part of the opposition unification deal, Yatseniuk and his allies will quit his Front for Changes party to join the Batkivshcyna group on its party list to comply with the election law.

The two groups, jointly with other, smaller opposition group, will also nominate 225 candidates running for seats in individual constituency districts across Ukraine.

The agreement will most likely alleviate financial crunch currently experienced by Batkivshchyna as most of its wealthy supporters – after pressure from the authorities - had suspended funding and switched loyalty to the Regions Party.

Yatseniuk’s business allies did not have as much pressure from the authorities as Tymoshenko’s and will be able to provide cash, at least initially, for the campaign of Batkivshchyna, analysts said. (tl/ez)