Ukraine's PM Azarov and government resign 28 January 2014 Last updated at 14:35 Protesters in Kiev say they are in no hurry to leave, despite the protest laws being annulled, as Duncan Crawford reports Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych has accepted the resignation of the prime minister and his cabinet amid continuing anti-government protests. Mykola Azarov had offered to step down as prime minister to create "social and political compromise." The move came after the Ukrainian parliament voted overwhelmingly to annul a controversial anti-protest law. The protests have spread in recent days across Ukraine, even to President Yanukovych's stronghold in the east. Official buildings in several cities have been occupied. Tuesday saw the interior ministry report that three protesters had stabbed and wounded three policemen in the southern city of Kherson, one of whom later died. It appears that Viktor Yanukovych still enjoys support in eastern Ukraine... But the fact that unrest has spread here will be of major concern to the embattled president  Steve Rosenberg BBC News, Zaporizhya In total, at least five people have been killed in violence linked to the protests. Parliament - holding an emergency debate on the crisis - voted by 361 to 2 to repeal the protest legislation, which among other measures banned the wearing of helmets by protesters and the blockading of public buildings. The law had helped fuel the demonstrations which began in Independence Square in the capital, Kiev, after Mr Yanukovych pulled out of a planned trade deal with the EU last November in favour of a $15bn (£9bn) bailout from Russia. MPs applauded as the result was announced. There was a similar response in Kiev's Independence Square, which remains the focal point of the demonstrations. A BBC correspondent who went to the square described it as relatively quiet with no sign of the recent violence which has affected parts of central Kiev. 16 Jan 2014: Parliament passes law restricting the right to protest Parliament adjourned after the vote on the protest law and is due to discuss the issue of granting an amnesty to convicted protesters. In his resignation statement, Prime Minister Azarov said: "To create additional opportunities for social and political compromise and for a peaceful solution to the conflict, I made a personal decision to ask the president of Ukraine to accept my resignation as prime minister of Ukraine." The government had "done everything to ensure the peaceful resolution of the conflict" and would do "everything possible to prevent bloodshed, an escalation of violence, and violation of citizen's rights," he said. Despite the president accepting their resignations, the cabinet can remain in their posts for 60 days until a new government is formed. President Yanukovych had already offered Mr Azarov's job to the opposition at the weekend, proposing that Fatherland leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk take the post. Mr Yatsenyuk declined the offer. Ms Ashton arrives from Brussels where she, with other senior EU leaders, will have met Russian President Vladimir Putin at an EU-Russia summit. Differences over Ukraine were expected to be high on the agenda.