Editor's Note: The Kyiv Post will be providing continuous coverage of the protests in Kyiv and other cities following the government's decision on Nov. 21 to stop European Union integration and suspend pursuit of an association agreement. The rallies started on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) the night of Nov. 21 and are continuing in Kyiv and other cities ahead of the Nov. 28-29 summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, at which Ukraine and the EU were scheduled to have signed a political and free trade deal. The events can be followed on Twitter using hashtags #euromaidan and #євромайдан or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EuroMaydan.
What will tomorrow bring?
Nov. 24, 11:41 p.m. The opposition Batkivshchyna party, whose leader Yulia Tymoshenko remains in prison, is reporting that Berkut anti-riot police are trying to break up the tent city that has been erected on European Square to stage continuous protests. The demonstrators want the government to sign a political and free trade pact with the European Union, something President Viktor Yanukovych is not prepared to do. Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya reports several thousand demonstrators still in the center, congregated in two main locations — European Square and Maidan Nezalezhnosti. We’ll see if they remain in the morning, or whether the police have been ordered to clear them out. — Brian Bonner
Tomorrow’s protest starts early
Nov. 24, 10:15 p.m. The Batkivshchyna opposition party is calling on the public to gather at European Square at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 25 to assemble for a march on the Cabinet of Ministers building, where the demonstrators plan to conduct a “blockade-picket.” — Brian Bonner
Repercussions start – Part 2
Nov. 24, 10 p.m. Berkut anti-riot police blame Svoboda party activists for using teargas first, prompting officers to respond in kind. Officers said Interior Ministry employees filmed the scuffles in search of evidence to bring criminal charges against the instigators. — Katya Gorchinskaya
Repercussions start – Part 1
Nov. 24, 9:50 p.m. The Ukrainska Pravda website (pravda.com.ua), one of the nation’s most popular sources for independent news, is down. Its journalists are reporting news on Twitter and Facebook. A cyber-attack took place soon after ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko’s blog on Pravda was hacked and a fake post placed instead.
Meanwhile, there were reported sightings of Serhiy Lyovochkin, President Viktor Yanukovych’s chief of staff, in the crowd to “take the temperature” of the demonstrators.
Also, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov gave an interview to ICTV containing veiled threats and accusations. He said the government will “watch closely” what happens on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square. “We know that these types of actions are financed. For example, if it’s done within the framework of law, this is normal. But if it’s done with a violation of law, then the government will not act like it did in 2004, when before our eyes quietly was happening a technical dismantling of a lawful government,” Interfax-Ukraine quoted him as saying. “we won’t play around here. We will tell our people, explain that everything has to be within the framework of the Constitution and law.” He was referring to the Orange Revolution in 2004, when a peaceful uprising reversed a rigged presidential election, denying Yanukovych the presidency that year. — Katya Gorchinskaya
Solidarity in Warsaw with EuroMaidan
Nov. 24, 9:27 p.m. Hundreds of Ukrainian, Polish and Belorussian students and civic activists rallied in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, today, according to Oleksandr Yavlinskyy, one of the participants. The rally aimed to collect signatures in support of signing the association agreement with the European Union. Around 640 signatures were collected, organizers say. — Anastasia Forina
EU ambassador to Ukraine: Ukraine’s future ‘lies in strong relationship with EU’
Nov. 24, 9:13 p.m. In a statement posted to the Facebook page of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, Jan Tombinski, the European Union Ambassador to Ukraine, said of today’s EuroMaidan protest:
“I notice massive mobilization of Ukrainian citizens in support of the signing of the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. After Cathy Ashton, the High Representative I wish to stress my believe that the future for Ukraine lies in a strong relationship with the EU. We stand firm in our commitment to the people of Ukraine who would have been the main beneficiaries of the agreement though the enhanced freedom and prosperity the agreement would have brought about.” — Christopher J. Miller
One Kyiv family says why they came to pro-European rally
Nov. 24, 8:20 p.m. Dozens of families were seen out in the cold, wet and foggy weather today.Children ran around baby carriages, around the feet of their parents amid speeches heard on loud speakers.
The Kyiv Post spoke with one that said why they came out and still were seen after 8 p.m. Kyiv time.
Self-employed Serhiy Stoyanov of Kyiv came with his wife, two-year-old daughter and six-year-old son.
“They (son and daughter) don’t know what’s happening, but I’m here for a brighter future,” said Stoyanov.
“I first came alone on Friday and Saturday, and today came with my family,” adding that he wants his children to grow up in a “developed and civilized” country. “I want to live in a better country.”
Twenty minutes earlier, the political opposition’s three leaders came on the stage with the following:
Vitaliy Klitschko (whose charter flight from Europe, according to his press service, wasn’t allowed to land in Kyiv – he landed in Kryviy Rih and drove 430 kilometerers to Kyiv…Ukraine’s Customs Service said he broke customs law – there were no customs officials to process him upon arrival – but he drove to Kyiv and gave a speech).
Klitschko, leader or UDAR Party: “I thank you personally for coming out here for your future.”
Arseniy Yatseniuk of Batkivshchyna Party: “This isn’t a rally for one day, a gathering for one day, we must endure and come every day to demand our call to get closer to Europe.”
Oleh Tiahnyobok, leader of Svoboda Party: “We must not let the traitors in government make the choices for you.” — Mark Rachkevych
Vitali Klitschko accuses authorities of obstructing his travel to Kyiv
Nov. 24, 7:16 p.m. Vitali Klitschko, world heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the opposition UDAR party, arrived in Kyiv only in the evening by car as his chartered plane wasn’t allowed to land in the city. Speaking to protesters on European Square, Klitschko said that those in power ordered air traffic control to ban his landing and that his car was continuously stopped on his way to Kyiv from Kryvyi Rih.
“Those in power are very scared,” Klitschko said, adding that that they really have reasons to fear as “all the country rebelled” against them. “This is what Yanukovych and Azarov’s government did, it was an attempt to take hope away and we will not bear this, we will fight in order that association agreement to be signed,” he said as was quoted by his party website.
Later the State Border Service accused Klitschko of evading customs control in Kryvyi Rih after he arrived to the city by charter flight from Hamburg, Germany. The border guards added that they sent information about Klitschko’s alleged administrative misdeed to parliament and other state bodies. He did make it to the street by nightfall, however, as the picture shows. — Oksana Grytsenko
Cabinet building scene of scuffles with police
Nov. 24. 6:45 p.m. The largest number in four days of protests turned out today against the government’s decision on Nov. 21 to scrap a political and trade pact with the European Union. The crowd size was bolstered by Ukraine’s three main opposition parties — Batkivshchyna, Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms and Svoboda.
Following a march from Shevchenko Park that started at noon, demonstrators took to European Square, the Presidential Administration building (on Bankova Street) and the Cabinet of Ministers building (on Hrushevsky Street).
Independence Square, one city block from European Square, was still home to protesters who have been there since Nov. 21, mostly middle-class citizens and civil society activists who organized through social media outlets.
Two scuffles with police broke out between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. at the Cabinet building, each time when police created more space for themselves while shifting columns and reinforcing their ranks with additional riot police. Protesters shot flares and threw empty plastic bottles at the police each time.
There were constant calls for the government to resign. One protester leaped to the rocky ledge of the partitioned wall to ask the police whether they accept twice-convicted recruits in their ranks, in reference to President Viktor Yanukovych’s criminal record.
Ruslana Lyzhychko, the Lviv native who won the Eurovision song contest in 2004, was seen with the contingent from her hometown near European Square, telling TV news reporters of her pro-European stance.
One protester carried a sign that called for this year’s Christmas to be spent without Yanukovych.
Dozens of protesters were seen with stickers attached to their coats proclaiming that they weren’t paid to protest, a reference to a history of “political tourists,” who political parties pay to lend them support during rallies. – Mark Rachkevych
Protest winding down, European People’s Party asks government to refrain from using force
Nov. 24, 6:09 p.m. Following reports of clashes between protesters and riot police, which led police to teargas some protesters to get them to back off, the European People’s Party called on Ukraine’s president and government to refrain from using force on EuroMaidan protesters. — Christopher J. Miller
Fake Lutsenko blog calls people to stop protest
Nov. 24, 6 p.m. Around 5 p.m. Yuri Lutsenko, the head of The Third Republic movement, published a post at his official blog at Ukrainska Pravda website, calling people to stop protesting next to the Cabinet of Ministers building and warning that it is danger to continue the protest. Soon Lutsenko’s press secretary Larisa Sargan said at her Facebook page that Lutsenko’s blog was hacked and the latest post is a provocation.
The fake post was replaced, but at 5:32 p.m. another post with similar meaning appeared on Ukrainska Pravda website, published from Lutsenko’s name. The post blames other oppositonal leaders Olexander Turchynov and Vitaly Klitschko for pushing protests to the point when they turned dangerous for people. — Olga Rudenko
Why they came
Nov. 24, 4:45 p.m. Today’s rally is likely the biggest public demonstration since the 2004 Orange Revolution. Both times Viktor Yanukovych was the enemy. Nine years ago, people blocked his attempt to steal an election; today, they are protesting what some say is his attempt to steal from Ukraine its European future.
Nina Pavliuk, 57, a Kyiv teacher, said she came to show European politicians that Ukraine has chosen to cast its lot with Europe. “They cannot ignore so many people here,” Pavliuk said, sporting a blue-yellow stripe tied to her hand. She added that the rival, smaller demonstration organized by the pro-presidential Party of Regions today was paid for. “I was told it costs Hr 150 to hold the flag there for several hours.”
“I came here to support European values,” said Oleksiy Zahumny, a 29-year-old service worker from Kyiv, standing wrapped into flag of the European Union. “I’m sure this protest will reach its aim. Maybe not soon, but for sure we will win,” he added.
The protesters held a peaceful meeting on European Square demanding that Yanukovych to abolish a government’s decree canceling negotiations with the EU over a trade deal, fire the government and go to the Vilnius Summit in Lithuania to sign the EU-Ukraine pact. — Oksana Grytsenko
Some unhappy with demonstration
Nov. 24, 4:27 p.m. The crowd is considerably smaller now and petering out as musicians play. At least one person was disappointed with the messages of the opposition leaders and the whole concert-like atmosphere of the event. But even this person thought that the size was impressive and might have reached 100,000 people at its peak. Another person tweeted: “What was this all about? Can somebody tell me?” — Brian Bonner
Brief standoff with police on Bankova Street
Nov. 24, 4:24 p.m. Around 5,000 demonstrators on Bankova Street, where the Presidential Administration is located, had a brief conflict with about 500 Berkut anti-riot police officers. It culminated in some demonstrators jumping in front of the police and shouting “Bandits, Get Out!” Then they returned to European Square — Vlad Lavrov
Crowd returns to European Square
Nov. 24, 4:01 p.m. The crowd decides against staying at the Cabinet of Ministers building and returns to European Square, where a concert will begin soon. — Daryna Shevchenko
Police or demonstrators use smoke bombs or tear gas on Bankova Street
Nov. 24, 5:57 p.m. A report that smoke bombs were used to keep people off Bankova Street. There was also another report of tear gas being used to keep the demonstrators away from the Presidential Administration. Whatever it was, there are no confirmed reports of violence. There were, however, police officers wearing gas masks. One Kyiv Post staff writer, however, said that demonstrators were throwing smoke bombs and stones at police officers blocking their path to the Cabinet of Ministers and shouting “Revolution!”— Olga Rudenko and Oksana Grytsenko
Police block Bankova Street, where Presidential Administration is located
Nov. 24, 3:50 p.m. The crowd is marching from European Square along Instityutska Street in central Kyiv. Bankova Street, where the Presidential Administration is located, is full of police and buses in a great show of force. The crowd size is still big — more than 10,000 people. Fortunately, it’s not so chilly, no wind and no rain.— Daryna Shevchenko
Crowd moves to Cabinet of Ministers to continue protest
Nov. 24, 3:30 p.m. When the music stopped, the crowd moved on to the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers building, a short walk way, to continue the protest. It was the cabinet led by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov that killed the dreams of European Union integration for many Ukrainians by suspending talks for a political association and free trade agreement. — Daryna Shevchenko
Plach Yeremiya entertains crowd
Nov. 24, 3:20 p.m. No protest is complete without musicians. Today’s band is Plach Yeremiya, a very popular and patriotic Ukrainian band. They performed between speeches, including singing their big hit “Vona” or “She.” Another band, Mandry, has also taken the stage. — Olga Rudenko
Whatever their size, this crowd is feisty and determined
Nov. 24, 3:11 p.m. Kyiv Post staff writers have been talking to many people in the crowd, and they say they are determined to fight to the end to get Ukraine on a democratic and European course. Many think Russia’s Vladimir Putin holds too much control over the nation. People from Lviv and Luhansk oblasts — representing the western and eastern sections of the nation — say they will go home, but will continue to protest in their home cities. Kyivans say they are ready to stay on their streets until their aims of European Union integration — scuttled by President Viktor Yanukovych on Nov. 21 — are realized. “If the right decision won’t be made on Nov. 28, there might be something even bigger than the 2004 Orange Revolution,” said Tetyana Syrova of Lviv, referring to the uprising that started nine years ago this month. The Orange Revolution stopped Yanukovych from taking power after a rigged presidential election, leading to a new vote on Dec. 26, 2004, and the election of one-term President Viktor Yushchenko. — Daryna Shevchenko
Crowd size: 100,000 or 50,000 or 10,000?
Nov. 24, 3:02 p.m. It’s very difficult to get good crowd estimates and today’s rally is a case in point. The political opposition has an interest in puffing up the numbers, but their representatives insist they reached their goal of 100,000 people on the streets. Journalists in attendance cut that in half and say 50,000 people. When I was standing in the middle of European Square and watching the marchers stream down Shevchenko Boulevard and onto the main Khreshchatyk Street, I thought the organizers could be right. But after moving only a block off European Square, I would have to say the crowd could be as few as 10,000 people. (But I am terrible at these estimates.) People were lined up on the hill leading to Mariinsky Park, overlooking European Square. And people were coming and going from the square for breaks. Still, it was an impressive turnout considering the rally was called spontaneously after the government on Nov. 21 abruptly cancelled negotiations for a political and free trade with the European Union. — Brian Bonner
After musical interlude, crowd will move to Cabinet of Ministers
Nov. 24, 2:58 p.m. Oleksandr Turchynov, the ex-deputy prime minister and an opposition leader, said the protest is moving from European Square to the Cabinet of Ministers a short distance away. Speeches were broken up by musical performances. — Olga Rudenko
Arseniy Yatseniuk says Ukraine needs new president
Nov. 24, 2:51 p.m. Arseniy Yatseniuk, who is leading Yulia Tymoshenko’s opposition faction while the former prime minister is in prison, said that President Viktor Yanukovych is incapable of implementing a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union. Yanukovych must be removed from office, Yatseniuk said, because his values are antithetical to EU values of democracy and human rights. — Katya Gorchinskaya
Oleksandr Turchynov calls on people to keep up protests
Nov. 24, 2:42 p.m. Oleksandr Turchynov, a strong loyalist of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her former deputy prime minister, said that the Verkhovna Rada — Ukraine’s parliament — should be disbanded if does not approve the laws needed for a trade and political agreement with the European Union by Nov. 27. The date is one day before a scheduled Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, at which Ukraine was supposed to have signed an association agreement with the EU until Yanukovych abruptly pull out of talks on Nov. 21. Turchynov also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
Turchynov called on people to bring food, wear warm clothes and join ongoing protests outside the Presidential Administration until their demands for EU integration are met.
“They are afraid of thousands of people,” Turchynov said. Then, reading from an opposition statement: “We won’t allow the anti-Ukrainian government to sell Ukraine and steal future of the people.” — Katya Gorchinskaya
Lutsenko warms up crowd
Nov. 24, 2:20 p.m. Ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who played key roles in opposing then-President Leonid Kuchma in 2002 and in denying Viktor Yanukovych the presidency in 2004, looks like he’s getting back into form as a public speaker following his release from prison in February this year.
Lutsenko spoke after Yevheny Tymoshenko, the somewhat shy speaker and daughter of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and got a warm reception. “When I left prison I said that I left a smaller prison for a bigger one. Truly, for the last years, Ukraine has been in the darkness” under Yanukovych as president.
Lutsenko was convicted of abuse of office after his 2010 arrest and imprisoned until Yanukovych pardoned him in April. His case is widely seen as part of a campaign of political persecution under way against the president’s political opponents. –– Olga Rudenko
Feisty crowd cheers opposition leaders
Nov. 24, 2 p.m. After a musical warm-up that included the national anthem, a lineup of opposition leaders, journalists and civic activists took the stage. They included: Yevheny Tymoshenko, the daughter of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko; Arseniy Yatseniuk and Oleksandr Turchynov, leaders of Tymoshenko’s Batkivshyna faction; journalists Mustafa Nayem and Victoria Suimar; ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and Oleh Tyanybok, the Svoboda party leader.
Yevheny Tymoshenko read a letter from her imprisoned mother, who said her heart is here with the protesters, and urged the crowd to give President Viktor Yanukovych an ultimatum: to meet conditions for signing an association agreement with the European Union at the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was Yanukovych’s abrupt withdrawal from negotiations for the political and trade pact that has triggered four days of protests since the government scrapped the talks on Nov. 21.
Lutsenko, who served more than two years in prison before Yanukovych pardoned him earlier this year, took the stage and decried the misrule by the president and his “mafioso Mezhyhyrski family” — a reference both to the close associates of the president who have gained financial benefits since Yanukovych took office, and to the Mezhyhyria mansion that Yanukovych occupies. The multimillion-dollar estate, acquired mysteriously from the state for the president’s use, has become a leading symbol of corruption to the opposition and many citizens. –Brian Bonner
Opposition claims 100,000 people show up for rally, but crowd looks to be much less
Nov. 24, 1 p.m.The crowd was still streaming onto European Square at 1 p.m., starting with a procession at Shevchenko Park less than two kilometers away. It’s hard to estimate such a crowd size, but it appears that the organizers did not get the 100,000 people they were looking for. However, several thousand people crowded European Square. People marched with banners and flags from the European Union, Ukraine and the three major opposition parties – Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshyna, Vitali Klitschko’s Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms and Oleh Tyanybok’s Svoboda. They sang folk songs, they chanted “Bandits Get Out,” they listened to patriotic songs blasted from the back of a van. There were at least 30 large tour buses parked on Bohdan Khmelnitsky, a main thoroughfare leading to the center. The police presence was visible, but not overwhelming, and the officers adopted a low key and unobstructive attitude. Many in the crowd carried banners from the cities they are from — Kremenchug, Chernovtsi had two of the more visible signs. Another sign: “No Putin, No Cry.” –Brian Bonner
Good protest weather
Nov. 24, 11:34 a.m. The temperature was 6 degrees Celsius on the way to 9 degrees — so demonstrators will not freeze. They may, however, get wet. The sky is grey and overcast, but it’s not raining at the moment and there is hardly any wind.–Brian Bonner
Pro-government rally starts on Mikhailovska Square
Nov. 24, 11:27 a.m. The anti-European Union integration forces aren’t going to sit the day out at home. A live stream camera from Radio Svoboda showed several hundred people gathered at Mikhailovska Square in central Kyiv, with musicians playing on stage. An announcer said the rally will be broadcast live on a TV channel. This group of government supporters will have to counter the attention — and probably the larger crowds — of pro-EU Ukrainians who are protesting the government’s decision on Nov. 21 to abandon a political and free trade pact that could have paved Ukraine’s way to eventual EU membership.--Brian Bonner
Canadians to rally in support of Ukraine’s EU integration drive
Nov. 24, 10:11 a.m. A rally in support of Ukraine’s European Union integration will take place today at 2 p.m. outside the Embassy of Ukraine in Ottawa, Ontario. “This grassroots, peaceful protest is to show that Canadians and the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada also support the European path,” according to organizers. The event is supported by the Canadian Group for Democracy in Ukraine, UCC Ottawa and other Ukrainian organizations in Ottawa. –Brian Bonner
Legal help for protesters
Nov. 24, 7:35 a.m. Organizers of today’s noon protest starting at the Taras Shevchenko Monument and going to European Square on Khreshchatyk Street at 1 p.m. say they have organized legal support for demonstrators encountering problems from police in reaching Kyiv. The Facebook site is at https://www.facebook.com/EuroMaydan and the Twitter site is https://twitter.com/EuroMaydan. The persons coordinating the legal aid are Andrij Dzyndzya at 063-100-6004 and Alexander Kulikovskii at 067-404-3537. — Brian Bonner
SEE OTHER EUROMAIDAN COVERAGE HERE:
See coverage of the EuroMaidan rallies from Nov. 21-23: EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine
See also coverage of the first night of the protests: “Nine years after start of Orange Revolution, Kyivans take to streets in protest of scuttled EU deal”
