Around 4,500 people are taking part in a rally outside the building of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, and another 1,500 are attending a rally near the National Bank of Ukraine.
“The situation is quiet. We are observing approximately 4,500 people near the Verkhovna Rada and another 1,500 near the building of Ukraine’s National Bank,” Andriy Kryschenko, chief of the Ukrainian National Police branch for Kyiv, told reporters near the parliament building.
There is a 3,500-strong police presence in the area, he said.
Police are ready to respond appropriately to any possible deterioration of the situation, Kryschenko said.
The rallies under way in the center of Kyiv are peaceful as of 12:30 p.m., an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said. Verkhovna Rada deputies and public activists are addressing demonstrators from a stage near the parliament building.
Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the Movement of New Forces and former head of the Odesa regional administration, has joined the rally on Kyiv’s Constitution Square near the parliament building. Accompanied by several dozens of his supporters, he passed through metal detectors installed on Hrushevskoho Street between the Ukrainian cabinet headquarters and the parliament building unimpeded. Demonstrators on Constitution Square greeted him with cheers.
The demonstrators’ key demands are a change to the country’s electoral system, creation of an independent anti-corruption court and abolition of parliamentarians’ immunity from criminal prosecution.
