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Ukrainians rally against president, EU suspends talks
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About 200,000 anti-government protesters converged on the central square of Ukraine’s capital yesterday after nearly four weeks of daily protests, but the rally was shadowed by suggestions that their goal of closer ties with Europe may be imperiled.
A much smaller demonstration of government supporters, about 15,000, was taking place about a kilometer away from Kiev’s Independence Square. Anti-government protesters have set up an extensive tent camp there and erected barricades of snow hardened with freezing water and studded with scrap wood and other junk.
The protests began on November 21 after President Viktor Yanukovych said he was backing away from signing a long-awaited deal to deepen trade and political ties with the European Union and instead focus on Russia, and have grown in size and intensity after two violent police dispersals.
In the face of the protests, which present a serious challenge to Yanukovych’s leadership, Ukrainian officials last week renewed talks with the EU pact and promised that they would sign the deal once some issues are worked out.
However, the EU’s top official on expansion issues, Stefan Fuele, cast doubt on the prospect yesterday, saying on his Twitter account that work is “on hold” and that the words and actions of Yanukovych and his government are “further and further apart.”
Yanukovych backed off the deal on the grounds that the EU was not providing adequate compensation to his economically struggling nation for potential trades losses with Russia. Russia wants the country to join a customs union, analogous to the EU, which also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The opposition says that union would effectively reconstitute the Soviet Union and remain suspicious that Yanukovych might agree to it when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
Arseniy Yatsenyk, a top opposition leader, warned Yanukovych against making such a move.
“If the agreement is signed, he can remain in Moscow and not return to Kiev,” Yatsenyk told the crowd at the protest on Independence Square, also known as the Maidan.
The mood was starkly different at the smaller pro-government rally across town. Many people from eastern Ukraine, the country’s industrial heartland and Yanukovych’s support base, are against the protesters in Kiev and want the country to have closer economic ties with Russia.
“We’ll become the slaves of Europe if we go into it,” said 43-year-old demonstrator Segei Antonovich. “Look at history — only union with Russia can save Ukraine from catastrophe.”
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