Ukraine President Threatens Opposition Amid Civil War Warning
Clashes in Ukraine between police and anti-government activists killed at least 25 people and left hundreds injured in the bloodiest episode of the country’s three-month standoff.
Nine security officers and a journalist were among the fatalities since yesterday as security forces moved to clear out the main protest camp in Kyiv. Thousands gathered on central Independence Square, where burning barricades surround protesters who used firebombs to hold off officers backed by water cannons and military vehicles.
Ukraine’s Russia-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, is seeking to end the crisis that has destabilized the country of 45 million. The government yesterday banned protests and vowed to use “all means” necessary to restore order. U.S. and European leaders condemned the violence, and some diplomats urged sanctions against the country’s leaders.
“The violent scenario is a tragic and irreversible decision,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta Political Analysis Center in Kyiv, said by phone. “Western Ukraine may even declare its insubordination. Any attempt to restore order in western Ukraine by force will start a civil war.”
The violence has spread throughout Ukraine. Protesters stormed police offices in Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk, both in western Ukraine. In Lviv, the country’s fourth-largest city, protesters set fire to a security services building.
Fires burn in the streets as anti-government protesters clash with police in Kyiv on Feb. 18, 2014.
Fires burn in the streets as anti-government protesters clash with police in Kyiv on Feb. 18, 2014. Close
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Photographer: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images
Fires burn in the streets as anti-government protesters clash with police in Kyiv on Feb. 18, 2014.
Yanukovych Statement
Yanukovych demanded that opposition leaders “dissociate themselves from radicals,” in a statement on his official website early today. The opposition crossed the line in urging people to take up arms, though it’s not too late to resume talks toward a peaceful outcome, he said.
In Kyiv, protesters fed flames ringing their camp to maintain a barrier against government forces throughout the night. Police said by loudspeaker shortly before 9 p.m. local time that women and children should leave Independence Square for the start of an “anti-terrorist” action.
“Extremists from the opposition have crossed the line,” the security service and Interior Ministry said in a joint statement. “They are killing innocents on the streets of the capital, burning buildings and cars.”
Subway Closed
The government closed the subway system, set up checkpoints to limit access to the city of 3 million people and took the opposition’s Channel 5 off the air. Schools and kindergartens in central Kyiv will remain closed today, as will the subway, the city administration said. Lights went out over Independence Square after midnight.
Anti-government demonstrators clash with riot police in central Kyiv on Feb. 18, 2014.
Anti-government demonstrators clash with riot police in central Kyiv on Feb. 18, 2014. Close
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Photographer: Sandro Maddalena/AFP/Getty Images
Anti-government demonstrators clash with riot police in central Kyiv on Feb. 18, 2014.
“I am calling on everyone who committed crimes to put down their arms and avoid severe punishment,” Andriy Portnov, deputy chief of staff of Yanukovych’s administration, said on the presidential website today. “We demand a stop to all illegal action, surrender to law enforcement, free all seized premises.”
Opposition leaders met Yanukovych for unscheduled talks after midnight. The president isn’t seeing the situation rationally, and his only demand was that protesters leave the camp on the square known as Maidan, Vitali Klitschko, head of the UDAR party, said today on Hromadske TV.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any good news from the talks,” said Klitschko, a former boxing world champion. “I went to see him as I suggested to stop the confrontation before ending talks. The president said that there is one way out: everyone should leave Maidan and go home. That’s it.”
Biden Call
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called Yanukovych to express “grave concern” over the violence and urge the government to exercise restraint, the White House said in a statement.
Biden told Yanukovych that while the U.S. condemns violence by any side, the government bears “special responsibility” for defusing the crisis, the White House said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius in an interview yesterday warned that Ukraine risks sliding into civil war and urged the European Union to weigh targeted sanctions against government officials.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, another opposition leader who attended the Yanukovych meeting, said the opposition had only one demand: an immediate truce.
“The authorities don’t want that,” Yatsenyuk said in remarks shown online by Channel 5. Opposition groups will continue their protests, he said. “We have peaceful people, who have the right to stand here.”
Yatsenyuk and Svoboda party leader Oleh Tyahnybok earlier led thousands of demonstrators into Mariyinskyi Park just south of the legislature before police halted their advance. It was their first mass action outside the compound since Jan. 19, when efforts to reach parliament were also repelled.
Snap Elections
“I am addressing the Ukrainian president, he is the only person who can be held responsible for what is happening,” Klitschko, 42, said yesterday in parliament as violence raged outside. “Call snap presidential and parliamentary elections. Do it. It’s the only way to solve the issue.”
Police used rubber bullets and stun and flash grenades to stop rock-throwing marchers on Shovkovychna Street, which ends at parliament. Molotov cocktails thrown from the crowd set at least two government trucks on fire. Protesters burned tires on another route, producing plumes of black smoke that covered the area where three activists were shot dead on Jan. 22.
Clouds of pepper gas permeated Mariyinskyi Park, where hundreds of riot police established a line of defense about 200 meters (650 feet) from parliament. They were faced by a similar number of truncheon-wielding protesters, most wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests and some carrying air pistols.
Buildings Burning
A trade union building on Independence Square, which the protesters had seized and used as their headquarters, was on fire after midnight. Emergency workers evacuated 41 people from the building, the city said today on website.
“Today, we face the choice of whether we’ll be a colony of Russia or an independent state,” lawmaker Andriy Parubiy told a swelling crowd before the march. “We are not afraid.”
As of 6 a.m., 351 people sought medical help in Kyiv, and 241 were hospitalized, the Health Ministry said on its website. Police said 371 officers were injured, many with gunshots. As many as 20 activists died and 400 were hurt, Channel 5 reported on its website, citing the head of the protest camp’s medical center.
Russia, which said this week it would renew funding for Ukraine, blamed the U.S. and the EU for the violence.
“Western politicians and European structures” and their “policy of connivance” are guilty for the escalation of the violence, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said yesterday.
Protest Demands
The opposition is seeking to overturn constitutional changes that strengthened Yanukovych’s powers and to put Ukraine on a path toward EU membership. The standoff began on Nov. 21, when Yanukovych pulled out of a free-trade deal with the EU, opting instead for President Vladimir Putin’s offer of $15 billion of aid and cheaper gas.
Russia, which stopped buying bonds from Ukraine’s cash-strapped government after Yanukovych’s Russian-born prime minister, Mykola Azarov, resigned last month, said Feb. 17 it would resume purchases, including $2 billion this week. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov made the announcement just as Klitschko and Yatsenyuk were meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin to seek financial and political backing to form a new government.
Yanukovych, 63, will propose a candidate for prime minister this week, Speaker Volodymyr Rybak told reporters Feb. 17. Yatsenyuk rejected Yanukovych’s offer to become premier on Jan. 25.
“Russia is playing hardball,” Alexander Valchyshen, head of research at Investment Capital in Kyiv, said by phone. “Russia gave a clear signal that it knows who’ll be the next prime minister, that it’s ready to financially support him, and that no other players are acceptable here.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Aliaksandr Kudrytski in Kyiv at akudrytski@bloomberg.net; Daryna Krasnolutska in Kyiv at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at htromm@bloomberg.net