Kyiv Protesters Expand Camp After Inconclusive Talks With Yanukovych
Ukrainian antigovernment protesters have expanded their protest camp in Kyiv after inconclusive talks between the opposition and President Viktor Yanukovych.
Protesters erected new barricades around Independence Square and also occupied the Agriculture Ministry building, but a truce appeared to be holding at the site of four days of violent clashes on Hrushevskyy Street, not far away.
Late on January 23, opposition leaders held four hours of talks with Yanukovych, but protesters later dismissed the concessions offered by the president.
After the talks with Yanukovch, opposition leaders said that he had promised to ensure the release of dozens of protesters detained after clashes with police and stop further detentions.
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But Udar party leader Vitali Klitschko told protesters that the president appeared to be turning a deaf ear to the opposition’s key demand — the resignation of the government.
Klitschko and Oleh Tyahnybok visited the barricades at Hrushevskyy Street overnight in a bid to persuade protesters there to continue to hold the truce.
Klitschko also told protesters to raise pressure on Kyiv’s government after their overnight vigil.
“I just want to say one more time that by morning [on January 24], we have to lay the pressure on so that the government resigns,” Klitschko said.
Meanwhile, protesters have also occupied regional administration offices in half a dozen cities in western Ukraine, including Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, and Khmelnytsky. In Lviv, protesters on January 24 blocked employees from entering the regional administration building after making the regional governor sign a letter of resignation one day earlier.
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In the city of Cherkasy, protesters stormed the regional governor’s offices but police later regained control of the building. Activists said one protester was badly hurt and in critical condition in hospital. Police said 58 people were detained.
Klitschko, Tyahnybok, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk were due to hold another round of talks with Yanukovych on January 24.
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Parliament is due to meet in an extraordinary session on January 28, and officials have said it could consider the opposition’s demand for the resignation of the government, as well as amendments to recent legislation restricting protests.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele was due in Kyiv on January 24 to try to assist a political dialogue.
The antigovernment protests began in late November after Yanykovych suspended negotiations on a landmark agreement on closer ties with the European Union.
Clashes between protesters and security forces erupted on January 19, sparked by new antiprotest laws endorsed by parliament last week.
At least three people have died in the antigovernment violence. The Interior Ministry on January 24 confirmed that two of the protesters killed two days earlier died of gunshot wounds, but authorities denied any police responsibility. The ministry said one of the men was killed with buckshot, while the other died from a hunting bullet.
The body of the third was found after he was apparently abducted and killed by unknown assailants.
Opposition activists now say five people have been killed in the most recent violence, including four who have been shot dead, but that cannot be confirmed.