Ukraine’s opposition parties are demanding the resignation of the country’s leaders and calling for a national strike, after hundreds of thousands of people protested against the postponement of a historic agreement with the European Union.
Nationalist leader Oleh Tyahnybok declared that a “revolution” was taking place after protesters occupied Kiev city hall and a nearby trade union building and announced that a tent camp on the capital’s Independence Square was now the “national headquarters of the resistance”.
Arseny Yatsenyuk, an ally of jailed former premier Yulia Tymoshenko, urged people to travel to Kiev to join rallies aimed at ousting Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich and the government of Mykola Azarov, the prime minister.
Mr Yatsenyuk called on protesters to mass outside government headquarters today and force the cabinet to step down, due to its refusal to sign the landmark pact with the EU last week and in response to the riot police’s violent handling of demonstrators on Independence Square on Saturday.
“Our main aim is the resignation of Yanukovich, but that starts with the resignation of the government,” Mr Yatsenyuk said. “We are appealing to our Ukraine. Please come to the [Independence] Square in Kiev . . . This is where the main events are taking place, here is the main battle for Ukraine. Drop everything and come here.”
Opposition encouragement
Vitali Klitschko, world heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the opposition party Udar ("Punch"), encouraged protesters to stay on Independence Square until Ukraine's leaders had been replaced by people who would accelerate the pace of integration with the EU. "We will do everything to protect you . . . we should mobilise everyone in the country and not lose the initiative," Mr Klitschko said.
He also urged demonstrators to keep calm and not be provoked by riot police or gangs of provocateurs that many people claimed were roaming the streets trying to start fights, so as to discredit the opposition and potentially give Mr Yanukovich a pretext to declare a state of emergency.
About 40 people were injured when riot police dispersed protesters on Saturday night in Kiev, and over 50 more had been hurt in the city by yesterday evening. Mr Yanukovich said he was “deeply outraged by events that took place on Independence Square” and insisted that he wanted Ukraine to move closer to the EU as quickly as possible, but only when conditions were right. At a summit with the EU last week, he rejected agreements that would have tilted Ukraine away from Russia and towards the west.
He said Ukraine’s economy was not strong enough to withstand the damage the pact would have done to relations with Russia – Ukraine’s main trading partner – which had threatened to retaliate if the deal was signed.
Poland’s foreign minister Radek Sikorski and his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt said last night that the EU would not “be drawn into a meaningless bidding war over Ukraine’s future”.
Secret service
"We urge all to keep protests in Kiev peaceful . . . We are convinced that the Ukrainian people will realise their dream of a European future." Rallies were continuing last night in Kiev in defiance of an official ban, and security service units had blocked the road to Mr Yanukovich's residence after hundreds of protesters reportedly started making their way there.
The protests are the biggest in Ukraine since the Orange Revolution of winter 2004-5, when demonstrations jointly led by Ms Tymoshenko overturned Mr Yanukovich's fraudulent election "victory" and forced a re-run of the vote. Pro-EU politicians came to power, but their shambolic rule allowed Mr Yanukovich to mount a comeback and become president in 2010.
