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.
Watch Radio Svoboda’s live video of EuroMaidan rallies HERE
SEE OTHER KYIV POST EUROMAIDAN COVERAGE HERE:
EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine (live updates): EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine
EuroMaidan rallies on Nov. 24: EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine
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”
Tomorrow’s protests: 9 a.m. in front of Cabinet of Ministers; 6 p.m. at European Square
Nov. 25, 11 p.m. Organizers of the EuroMaidan demonstrations say protests will take place at 9 a.m. on Nov. 26 at the Cabinet of Ministers building. At 6 p.m., another rally will take place on European Square. The protests enter their sixth day to demand that the government sign an association agreement with the European Union during the Nov. 28-29 Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. — Brian Bonner
Melee breaks out at EuroMaidan rally; police fight with demonstrators
Nov. 25, 8:32 p.m. Violent clashes broke out between police and civilians at a major rally tonight at European Square. Police used tear gas in the scuffles near UNIAN news agency, which is close to the Ukrainian House, the epicenter of the EuroMaidan protests of the last five days.
According to eyewitnesses at the scene, the clashes started when demonstrators noticed a white government van believed to be carrying sophisticated equipment to eavesdrop on telephone calls of protest leaders at the scene.
The demonstrators overtook the van, prompting hundreds of Berkut anti-riot police to descend on the scene, triggering violent clashes. The government official in the van escaped with police help, but — after 30 minutes of chaos and clashes — leaders of the demonstration took to the stage in triumph after police backed off. The protest leaders announced that they had seized the suspected government surveillance van and its recordings and would make them public after analyzing the conversations. At least one opposition leader said the van was being checked for explosives to be used in a possible provocation.
An opposition member of parliament, Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, accused police of illegal tapping of the protesters from a government van. Kyrylenko appealed for calm, staying “we are going on with our peaceful protest.” Opposition member of parliament Mykola Kniazhytsky posted to his Facebook profile a number of items seized from the suspected surveillance van, as well as the passport of a man Serhiy Lavrenko.
Several thousand demonstrators locked hands in an effort to ward off the charging police, but officers beat people who got in their way and sprayed them with tear gas. Demonstrators then charged police with iron gates in their hands in an effort to push the officers away. After many clashes, the police started backing away a bit at 8:38 p.m.
Some shouted “the police are with the people,” a popular cheer during the 2004 Orange Revolution. Other demonstrators got angry and shouted “shame” at the riot-control police and threw smoke bombs at them.
Crowds filled half of European Square – which means several thousand people were in attendance at least — and fights broke out on several occasions in multiple places.
There were no reports of serious injuries or ambulances seen.
Some demonstrators shouted extreme slogans such as “out with the gang” and “death to enemies.” One man grabbed wood as a weapon and said “we have enough to carry out the fight.” Some people in the crowd covered their face with masks.
More riot police were on the way at 20:46 p.m., coming from Bankova Street where the Presidential Administration is located and making their way down to European Square near the Dnipro Hotel.
Oleksandr Turchynov, the opposition leader and ally of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, took to the stage during the clashes and appealed to police to back off and protect people’s constitutional rights to protest peacefully. He accused the police of provoking the conflicts. Again, people shouted “the police are with the people.” They also shouted other Orange Revolution slogans from the 2004 uprising, such as “Together, we are strong, we cannot be defeated.” Arseniy Yatseniuk, another opposition leader, also appealed for calm.
At the start of the conflicts, the emcee for the demonstration — which began peacefully at 6 p.m. — asked the crowd to back away from police.
The clashes subsided by 8:50 p.m., lasting more than 20 minutes, but the tension did not. An estimated half of the hundreds of riot-control police came wearing tear gas masks. However, 10 minutes later, by about 9 p.m, police started to back out of sight entirely from European Square as protesters kept pushing towards them. The estimated 5,000 people on the street cheered the police retreat and the rally resumed.
By 9:07, the fights had ended and people started singing the Ukrainian national anthem. A mini-bus believed by some in the crowd to have carried paid provocateurs also was reported to have left the scene. Oleh Tyahnybok, the opposition leader with the Svoboda party, thanked the crowd for holding their ground against police and the concert went on, with the group Mandry playing music. The crowd also began thinning out.
Just before the last song was played about 10:30 p.m., Tyahnybok took to the stage and asked party members to go to the Kyiv Pechersk district police station, where some activists are being held. — Vlad Lavrov, Daryna Shevchenko, Oksana Grytsenko, Yuriy Onyshkiv
Nov. 25, 6:36 p.m. The scuffles last night and this morning between police and protesters during the ongoing EuroMaidan rallies. The known casualty count: One demonstrator has a broken hand and one opposition lawmaker, Andriy Parubiy, has a broken finger. This information comes from Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, a lawmaker with the opposition Batkivschchyna faction. — Oksana Grytsenko
Ukrainian House remains closed
Nov. 25, 6:30 p.m. Ukrainian House on European Square remains closed, much to the dismay of Morgan Williams, executive director of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council. Williams had what turned out to be a poorly planned exhibition of Holodomor photos for last weekend, and reports today that he still cannot get into the building. The state-owned conference hall has been a closed headquarters for for anti-riot police. A giant stage for the EuroMaidan protesters is set up in front, along with a tent city for demonstrators to spend the night. — Brian Bonner
Crowd at evening rally swells to more than 2,000 after 6 p.m.
Nov. 25, 6:25 p.m. Another significant rally is under way. Before the work day ended, only several hundred people were on European Square, the epicenter of the EuroMaidan protests. But after 6 p.m., more people began arriving and the crowd had swelled to more than 2,000 people. They were entertained with live music and speeches as part of a week-long drive to get Ukraine’s government to reverse course and sign an association agreement with the European Union later this week in Lithuania. Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara confirmed that President Viktor Yanukovych will attend the Vilnius Summit, even though no EU-Ukraine agreement will be reached there. Member of parliament Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, a member of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, spoke. Calm and peace prevailed. — Daryna Shevchenko
Man says crowd for Nov. 24 EuroMaidan rally was 60,000 tops — not 100,000 people
Nov. 25. 4:30 p.m. Nazar Kovalenko from Kyiv decided to count the number of protesters that had come to European Square in Kyiv on Nov. 24 after he had an argument with a friend about the number. The organizers, members of Ukraine’s political opposition, estimated the crowd at 100,000 people — and most of the media simply ran with the number, without trying to assess its accuracy. Kovalenko said he calculated the crowd to be between 25,000 and 60,000 people. Kovalenko used a self-invented method of counting. He marked places where people were standing during the rally on Google maps snapshot of the area, divided the space in equal squares and counted the number of people standing in the zone of one square, using high-resolution photo of the crowd. Kovalenko feels that the real number is in the middle of the gap he named, which would be 42,000 people. — Olga Rudenko
What today’s scuffle was all about
Nov. 25, 4:19 p.m. Viktor Andrusenko, a 56-year-old retiree from Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. (in the middle of the photo) described what led up to the scuffle between police and demonstrators this morning outside teh Cabinet of Ministers building: “It was around 9 a.m. We came from European Square to support the students, who were already here. And then the car started moving out of the Cabinet of Ministers courtyard, probably it was some officials, so that the young people here were in its way. So, the police started clearing up a way for the car, and then used tear gas and then the clash started, with some young people knocked off their feet.” –Vlad Lavrov
Students organize noon protest on Nov. 27
Nov. 25, 4:10 p.m. Who else has more free time and energy on their hands than students? And who are more interested in having their nation turn towards the West, specifically the European Union, than young people?
It is for for these reasons that students, like they often do the world over, are key foot soldiers in protests and demonstrations. They were pivotal during Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, which overturned a rigged presidential election that year, and they are proving to be important to EuroMaidan, the protests launched on Nov. 21 to press the government to sign an association agreement with the European Union later this week in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Many students came to join the rally in front of the building of the Cabinet of Ministers this morning. They were chanting “Youth of the nation is for European integration,” “Ukraine is Europe.”
“We are maintaining our position and will be coming to the streets until (Nov.) 28th at least,” said Olena Kushnirchuk, a first-year student of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy.
“It was great to see a lot of students near Cabinet of Ministers, despite the weather. I believe our protest will help to show the will of young nation,” Ivanna Telniak, another student of Kyiv Mohyla Academy said.
Roman Rybakov, a graduate of Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv, said students should be more organized: “While most of those who promised to come to Maidan didn’t do it, we still have big crowd here and we’ll keep on demanding a European future for Ukraine. It will be better if universities can offer their students a place to warm up.”
All of them plan to join a big students’ rally as part of the EuroMaidan drive. It is supposed to take place at Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) on Nov.27 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., the day before the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. — Anastasia Forina, Olena Goncharova
Nov. 25, 3:56 p.m.
Why one student came from Lviv — and is staying
Nov. 25, 3:56 p.m. Uliana Kyrch, a 20-year-old history student from Lviv, was sitting on a stone fence in front of the Cabinet of Ministers this mornig. “We came from to Kyiv (on Nov. 24) in the morning. A lot of us stayed in Lviv, but I decided I’d be of more use here. We came because we want normal education, we don’t want to have any borders. We slept in the tent city on E It wasn’t scary – just cold. There was a lot of people staying there overnight. The police wouldn’t be able to remove the tents. So there was nothing to be afraid of – they’d have to kill everyone to do it. I lived in Switzerland for one year. And actually bringing Ukraine closer to that standard of life is what we are fighting here for. I studied and worked in Zurich, but returned to Ukraine to help create same kind of a country here. When I have kids, I don’t want to move them somewhere abroad. I hope (the government) will sign the association agreement. If they won’t, we’ll keep fighting and protesting against it. Also, we’ll do some protest work at our universities.”
Rally tonight at 6 p.m. on European Square
Nov. 25, 1:10 p.m. This is where everybody can go to find the latest EuroMaidan events https://www.facebook.com/EuroMaydan. Today the organizers encourage people “to come and defend their right to live in Europe every day until Nov. 29. EuroMaidan is not scared of rain. Just to remind – we are planning to stay here until Nov. 29, round-the-clock. The main meeting time (today) is 6 p.m. Come over.” –-Daryna Shevchenko
Tyahnybok wants special session of parliament on Nov. 27
Nov. 25, 11 a.m. Oleh Tyahnybok, leader of the opposition Svoboda party, said that oppositional members of parliament have collected signatures to held an extraordinary parliament session on Nov. 27, the day before the Eastern European Partnership summit opens in Vilnius, Lithuania, where Ukraine had been expected to sign an association agreement with the European Union. However, on Nov. 21, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych unilaterally pulled out of talks for the agreement, triggering a storm of protests. Tyahnybok said that the members of parliament will demand that the Cabinet of Ministers to come to the session. “The Cabinet of Ministers doesn’t understand that it has to give a report to the parliament. We were elected by the people, and the cabinet was appointed. They have the wrong understanding of how the government in Ukraine works,” Tyahnybok said. — Olga Rudenko
Calm returns to protest outside Cabinet of Ministers
Nov. 25, 10:56 a.m. About 300 people are rallying in front of the Cabinet of Ministers building at the moment, including students and supporters of the political opposition carrying their parties’ flags. They are shouting “Bandits Get Out,” a reprise of the popular 2004 Orange Revolution chant. About 100 Berkut anti-riot police are standing in front of the building. The three major opposition leaders — Arseniy Yatseniuk, Oleh Tyahnybok and Vitali Klitschko — were on hand. The atmosphere is peaceful and calm. There was no teargas used by police on demonstrators this morning, conflicting with reports from the Batkivshchyna party. — Anastasia Forina
Batkivshchyna reports use of teargas by police
Nov. 25, 10:14 a.m. — The quiet morning didn’t last long. We have reporters on the scene trying to cover the events, and a Radio Svoboda video stream is available here, but the opposition Batkivshchyna party is reporting that a group of 1,000 protesters went to the Cabinet of Ministers building with placards calling for the freedom of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the resignation of current Prime Minister Mykola Azarova. According to Batkivshchyna, officers and demonstrators clashed, involving a small fight in which demonstrators tore some officers’ helmets. Berkut anti-riot police were trying to dislodge demonstrators from the street and some police used teargas, according to the party’s press release. We are waiting for first-hand reports from our Kyiv Post journalists on the scene. — Brian Bonner
Day 5 opens soggily, peacefully
Nov. 25, 8:46 a.m. The tents are soggy, but still standing. So are the people. A few hundred of them – some wisely dressed in raincoats and carrying umbrellas — stood around the tent city outside Ukrainian House on European Square awaiting their next orders. Batkivshchyna, the opposition party led by imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, had called for a march to the Cabinet of Ministers, where the plan was to picket outside the government building. The great Associated Press photographer, Efrem Lukatsky, was on duty overnight — waiting for the right moment, as all great photographers do. He said it was an uneventful night. There’s plenty of police along the route to the square. I saw a busload of police officers on Boris Gritsenka Street on the approach to Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) and more on the way. They were relaxed, talking, laughing among themselves — always a good sign during tense times. — Brian Bonner
SEE OTHER KYIV POST EUROMAIDAN COVERAGE HERE:
See coverage of the EuroMaidan rallies on Nov. 24: EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine
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”
