In high spirits, some 7,000 opposition supporters gathered on April 7 in Kyiv for the planned “Rise Ukraine!” rally. Its timing coincided with the release from prison of ex-Interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko, courtesy of a presidential pardon that cut short his four-year sentence.
People held flags of all three parliament opposition parties:
Batkivshchyna,
Svoboda and Ukrainian Alliance for Reforms (UDAR) and came to
hear their
leaders Arseniy Yatseniuk, Vilali Klitschko and Oleh Tiahnybok.
Lutsenko greeted
the crowd that gathered near monument to poet Taras Shevchenko,
when Yatseniuk called
him on a cell phone and amplified his voice. “I am happy that finally I
will be among those
who, like me, dream of a free, democratic and European Ukraine,”
Lutsenko said. “The policy
is being made not in the president’s administration, not in the
parliament.
It’s being made on Maydans. We won there and we will win there
again.”
Yatseniuk called Lutsenko’s release a victory. President Viktor Yanukovych pardoned Lutsenko and five other prisoners, including former Ecology Minister Heorhiy Filipchuk, on April 7. The order took effect immediately.
“The fact
that Yanukovych signed a decree (about pardon) is first of all a
win of Yura (Lutsenko),
because Yura is a strong die-hard person of those people who came
here today, and
of our Western partners,” Yatseniuk told the journalists after
the rally.
“Yanukovych
released him (Lutsenko) not over his good will, he was forced to
do so,” said Volodymyr
Solodenko, 65, pensioner, who brandishing placard saying “Yura
with us! Glory
to heroes!”
With a
number of vague opposition demands announced on the meeting the
protesters spoke
the most about a need to release Yulia Tymoshenko, head of
Batkivshchyna party
and a former Prime Minister, who serves her seven-year term in
Kharkiv prison.
“We know
that Yura (Lutsenko) is already free, but there’s still need to
free Yulia (Tymoshenko),”
said Lilia Klinchuk, 41, from Zhytomyr, who stood holding
placard with
portraits of Tymoshenko and Lutsenko.
“Only Yulia
Volodymyrivna will not allow turn Ukraine into a police state,”
said
16-year-old Margaryta Tariyan-Tymchenko from city of Bila
Tserkvam who stood
wearing a t-shirt with words “Yulia free” written on it.
The
politicians, who spoke to the crowd from pedestal of the
monument, also claimed
that Tymoshenko release will be their main aim.
“No country
can be named democratic if it has political prisoners,” said
UDAR party leader
and world’s boxing heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. “We
will fight for
Yulia Tymoshenko and others be released and there will be no
political
prisoners.”
The opposition
also demanded to impeachment of President Viktor Yanukovych,
snap parliament
elections, and announce of the new elections of Kyiv mayor.
“The regime
is scared, the regime starts falling in pieces,” said Oleh
Tiahnybok, leader of
nationalist Svoboda party. He added that while the number of
people who came to
the meeting was less than expected, but still more that it was
usually coming
for the rallies in the last years.
Tiahnybok
also said that many protesters from other cities were simply not
allowed to
come to Kyiv for rally, being stopped by the police.
Opposition
decided to hold the new rally in Kyiv on Europe Day on May 18,
said Yatseniuk,
adding: “Yes to Europe, no to Yanukovych.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected] and Kateryna Kapliuk can be reached at [email protected].
