A protest against the sale of farmland has continued on Constitution Square in front of the Verkhovna Rada building in downtown Kyiv on Dec. 18.
Hundreds have gathered on the square outside the parliament building in the Ukrainian capital. The National Headquarters for the Protection of Homeland, which combines political parties such as Batkivschyna, Svoboda, the National Corps Party, trade unions, and the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, is coordinating the protests.
Police and the National Guard have tightened security in the area around the Verkhovna Rada building, where the situation was calm as of Wednesday morning.
Four different protest rallies were taking place simultaneously near the parliament building on Dec. 17. At some point, law enforcement officers dismantled and took away military-style tents that some protesters had tried to set up on Hrushevskoho Street. In reaction, protesters began throwing plastic bottles and smoke flares at police and national guardsmen, who in turn used tear gas. Zorian Shkiriak, advisor to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, later said that 17 members of law enforcement had been injured and 26 people detained by police.
