Ukraine's anti-government protesters have pledged to remain on Kiev's Independence Square, with some angrily rejecting an EU-brokered compromise deal and threatening to use force today to drive President Viktor Yanukovich from power.
Clear divisions in the opposition ranks emerged again on a highly charged evening in central Kiev, where tens of thousands of people sang hymns and the national anthem for dozens of protesters shot dead during a week of shocking violence.
Coffins carrying the victims were lifted shoulder-high through the crowd, and men and women sobbed together as priests said prayers on the stage. As the bodies were carried away, chants of “Glory to the heroes!” and “Death to the enemies!” rang out across the square. Protesters were unmoved by Mr Yanukovich’s commitment – agreed after many hours of talks with EU and Russian envoys – to allow early presidential elections, the formation of a “national unity” government, and a return to the 2004 constitution that strips him of many powers. As the EU and US hailed the deal as a major breakthrough, demonstrators appalled by the death of 77 people and injuries to 587 this week showed that their patience and appetite for compromise were running out.
Crowd calls out 'Shame!'
When the leaders of Ukraine's three main opposition parties appeared on stage to explain why they agreed to the pact, they were greeted with a torrent of jeers and cries of "Shame!" Activists who do not represent major parties clambered over barriers and demanded access to the stage. Once there, they denounced yesterday's agreement to loud cheers from the square.
"I've been defending ordinary people, not fighting for politicians looking for cushy jobs," said one camouflage-clad speaker who grabbed the microphone ahead of liberal Udar party leader Vitali Klitschko, a former world heavyweight boxing champion.
“We have all created this turning point. We gave a chance to the politicians, to become future ministers, presidents, and they don’t want to fulfil one condition – that the criminal gets out!” the man said, in a passionate speech that electrified an already emotional crowd.
“Friends . . . I don’t want to make one of those stupid speeches that they’ve been feeding us for months, and I don’t believe in these difficult political processes that they tell us about. Seventy-seven people have died, and they go and make a deal.
“Our leaders shake the killer’s hand – shame!” the man shouted, his voice cracking as he looked out over the open coffins and a sea of shining mobile phones, which illuminated a square almost bereft of lights after a deadly raid by riot police last week. “I beg you to support one thing . . . If there is no announcement about Yanukovich’s resignation by 10am tomorrow, we will go on the attack, with weapons, I swear to you.”
A prominent group of activists called AutoMaidan also rejected the deal. Its leader, Dmytro Bulatov, was kidnapped during the protests and tortured for a week by unknown assailants. AutoMaidan demands, among other things, “an immediate ‘reboot’ of the authorities, with the resignation of the criminal Yanukovich and snap presidential elections”. It also called for the “signing of an association agreement with the European Union as a guarantee of democracy in Ukraine”.
Mr Yanukovich’s rejection of such a pact last November triggered the start of the protests, which have since spiralled into demands for a complete overhaul of how Ukraine is run.
Opposition leaders have only ever had very limited control over the protesters, and groups demanding revolution and rejecting the entire political elite have led the armed confrontation with riot police. They say their actions have forced Mr Yanukovich to make concessions. They enjoy the sympathy of many non-violent protesters who are deeply disillusioned with the corrupt and incompetent way Ukraine has been run since independence in 1991.
Yanukovich must go
Dmytro Yarosh, leader of the Right Sector nationalist revolutionary group that is a major force in the protests, said Mr Yanukovich must go, and that the uprising would only end "with the total elimination of the domestic occupying regime and the creation of a Ukrainian national state with a system of full national democracy."
After a brief exchange of gunfire near Independence Square in the morning, yesterday Kiev was free of violence. A group of policemen from western Ukraine who had come over to the opposition marched through the square and pledged to protect protesters.
Much of western Ukraine is now run by "people's councils" which reject Mr Yanukovich's authority. Last night, Independence Square vowed more defiance and bade farewell to its dead, as fireworks flashed and crackled overhead. "If we leave things like this", activist leader Oleksandr Danylyuk said, "the souls of our fallen heroes will know no peace".
