While big protests against the Ukrainian government continue in Kiev and other cities, there are large parts of the country where the government has more support, and where people do not share the goal of closer integration with Europe.
Donetsk is Ukraine’s industrial heart and the powerbase of President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions. Yet it was here, during a rally on Sunday, that protesters publicly burned a portrait of the president.
About 300 people took part in the rally, under Ukrainian and EU flags, to protest against the use of force by riot police in the capital, Kiev.
Pro-European sentiments in Donetsk, while not nearly as strong as in Kiev or cities in the west of Ukraine, were nonetheless stirred by images of protesters being beaten.
