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Thousands of protestors marched in central Kyiv on Feb. 18 to demand the resignation of President Petro Poroshenko.
Simultaneously, protestors held demonstrations in 25 other Ukrainian cities in support of the same demand.
In Kyiv, police estimated the number of protesters at 3,000, while the organizers estimated it at “tens of thousands.” A Google mapping estimate suggested that the number of protesters could be as high as 10,000.
The rally coincided with the four-year anniversary of the beginning of the mass murders of EuroMaidan protesters on Feb. 18, 2014. As many as 23 protesters were killed on Feb. 18, 2014, and more than 100 demonstrators were murdered from Feb. 18 to Feb. 20.
Initially, the protesters planned to march through Kyiv’s central Khreshchatyk Street to Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the city’s central square and the main site of the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
However, the authorities had set up metal structures with national colors and portraits of killed EuroMaidan protesters on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The structures, ostensibly set up to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the EuroMaidan revolution, prevented demonstrators from setting up a stage on the city square.
As a result, demonstrators had to march from Shevchenko Park down Volodymyrska Street to Mykhailvska Square in front of Mykhailivsky Monastery – another major site of the EuroMaidan Revolution.
“Scumbags and marauders came to power on the bones and blood of Ukrainian (EuroMaidan) heroes,” opposition politician and former Soviet dissident Stepan Khmara said at the protest.
Ex-Georgian President and Ukrainian opposition politician Mikheil Saakashvili said that Poroshenko “had protected himself with portraits of our heroes but no structures on Khreshchatik will save these thieves and non-entities.” Saakashvili, who was deported on Feb. 12, was speaking through the Internet from abroad, with his voice being broadcast online at the rally.
Six central metro stations were shut down at the beginning of the march due to an alleged bomb threat. Protesters claimed that President Petro Poroshenko wanted the stations shut down to prevent people from attending the rally.
Meanwhile, Samopomich party lawmaker Semen Semenchenko said on Feb. 18 that police had entered the protest tent camp in front of the Verkhovna Rada when most of its residents had left to march for Poroshenko’s resignation. He said the police had taken away their shields and ammunition.
By the time hundreds of demonstrators marched from Mykhailivska Square to the tent camp, police had already departed the camp. The police did not respond to a request for comment.
Protesters march for President Petro Poroshenko’s resignation in Kyiv on Feb. 18.
The rally was bigger than the previous protest for Poroshenko’s resignation held on Feb. 4. The larger turnout was partly a reaction to Saakashvili’s deportation to Poland without a court warrant on Feb. 12.
Under Ukrainian law, forced deportation is only possible if authorized by a court. Serhiy Hunko, a spokesman for the State Migration Service, confirmed to the Kyiv Post that there was no court ruling on Saakashvili’s forced deportation.
Video footage of Saakashvili’s detention in a Kyiv café showed him being brutally pushed by armed border guards and grabbed by his hair. Saakashvili said that the men hit him in the face, threatened to shoot him, and forced him onto the floor of a bus.
His detention and expulsion violated numerous laws, argued both lawyers for Saakashvili and independent attorneys. The authorities deny accusations of wrongdoing, claiming that Saakashvili’s deportation was legal.
“Poroshenko threw me out of the country,” Saakashvili told the protestors. “He thought that he had solved his problems. But people took to the streets not for Saakashvili but for Ukraine. The whole of Ukraine has risen up and will not calm down until this scumbag leaves office.”
Saakashvili added that he “dreams of re-uniting” with his supporters in Ukraine as soon as possible.
Apart from the two February protests, Saakashvili co-organized three major protests for Poroshenko’s impeachment in December. Poroshenko’s impeachment or resignation has become the protest movement’s main demand since he had failed to meet its previous three demands: the creation of an anti-corruption court, lifting lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution and a fairer election law.
Saakashvili’s deportation triggered an effort to forge a coalition of opposition parties. At the Feb. 18 rally, these parties made a joint statement on Saakashvili’s deportation, and representatives of parties that had not attended rallies for Poroshenko’s resignation before, including ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna, were seen at the protest.
“Poroshenko and the law enforcement agencies he controls committed an overtly unconstitutional and illegal act – they brutally expelled Mikheil Saakashvili from the country,” the parties’ joint statement read. “In order to get rid of an opposition leader, the authorities launched a political vendetta, violated human rights, and caused big damage to Ukraine’s international reputation. This crime must be investigated. All officials who violated the law and abused their authority must be tried.”
The parties who made the statement include Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces, Batkivshchyna, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi’s Samopomich, the nationalist Svoboda party, and others.
“The Ukrainian government did that to a politician who is well-known all over the world,” they said. “This means that every Ukrainian citizen cannot feel secure and cannot hope for justice. As during the time of (ex-President Viktor) Yanukovych, we are on the brink of a dictatorship.”
Protesters march for President Petro Poroshenko’s resignation in Kyiv on Feb. 18.
