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| Protesters and riot police in Kyiv (Image: Reuters) |
Confrontations continue in Ukraine, as the clashes between protesters on
Euromaidan and riot police happened during the night. Situation remains
extremely tense and needs to be resolved in a peaceful way, state activists,
representatives of artists, priests and intellectuals and oppositional leaders.
According to the information of Ministry of Health nearly 160 people
have been injured, 2 people were killed, but the doctors working on the field
report that only in 22 January there were several hundreds of injured, a lot of
them don’t go to the hospitals due to the fears of being detained by the
police, as police and special security forces “Berkut” were trying to attack
several hospitals in the night attempting to arrest injured protesters. 5
people were killed on 22 January, four of them were killed with the live
ammunition, the fifth one was found dead in the forest with the marks of
tortures on his body. It was one of the activists kidnapped one day earlier.
New clashes erupted in Grushevskogo Street, leading to the governmental
district, in the morning, but one of the oppositional leaders, Vitaly Klichko,
went to the policemen and security forces to hold negotiations and urge them to
stop violence. Ceasefire till 8 p.m. was agreed between the sides, but protesters
have erected new massive barricades and prepared for the possible storming of
Maidan.
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| Burning tyres on the line between protesters and police (Image: Liga NET) |
As for the government’s reaction, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has
praised “Berkut” and riot police for their deeds and claimed that shot
protesters deserved it as they were extremists and rebels. Later the version
about mercenaries from NATO shooting Ukrainian protesters was also expressed by
the government. In addition to that Azarov stated that there is no political
crisis in the country, situation is totally under control and there are only
several hundreds of extremists form three Western Ukrainian governorates
clashing with police in Kyiv. Later though, during the speech delivered in
Davos, Azarov said that there are attempt of coup d’état in the country and it’s
impossible to hold early presidential elections under current circumstances. He
also said that some changes are possible in Cabinet of Ministers in February.
As for the issue of his possible resignation, he answered that he doesn’t worry
about it.
As the situation escalates in Kyiv, threats of imposing state of
emergency are very serious, and there were reports about urgent meeting of the
MPs of Parliament to vote for state of emergency, but there were not enough
signatures for this decision. Though the next voting on this issue could be
during the Parliamentary session on 28 January, according to some sources close
to Parliament.
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| Map showing the locations of the recent events (Image: BBC) |
Yanukovich in his turn has assured that state of emergency will not be
imposed in Ukraine. He said it during his telephone talk with the President of
European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso.
Amid the tense situation and temporary ceasefire between “Berkut”, riot
police and protesters, the second round of the negotiations between the
opposition and Yanukovich has been held. Talks have been postponed three times,
as Yanukovich had some more important meetings and issues than political crisis
and killing of people in the capital of Ukraine. Yanukovich’s side was
represented by himself and the team participating in the first round of talks:
Andriy Klyuev, Olena Lukash and Andriy Portnov. Oppositional forces and Maidan
have been represented by three oppositional leaders Arseny Yatsenyuk, Vitaly
Klichko and Oleg Tyagnybok.
Negotiations lasted more than four hours and didn’t have significant and
decisive results, but some steps have been made.
Vitaly Klichko and Oleg Tyagnybok announced the results of the talks and
the plan of the next steps in front of the people in Grushevskyt Street, the
site of confrontations, and they are expected to voice these results from the
stage of Euromaidan as well.
Yanukovich demonstrated his inflexibility and stubbornness and refused
to listen to the demands, but he claimed that the issue of government’s
resignation could be considered during the extraordinary session of Parliament.
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| Line of condrontations (Image: Liga NET) |
According to the oppositional leaders, Yanukovich asked to stop violence
from the side of protesters, and the oppositional leaders in their turn
demanded to stop violence against the demonstrators, to withdraw “Berkut” and
riot police from the streets of Kyiv and stop repressions, kidnappings and
arrests of the activists and revolutionaries. It was declared ceasefire between
the sides was agreed, and Yanukovich has promised that there will be official
statements by him, General Prosecutor Pshonka and Minister of Interior
Zakharchenko regarding the recent events and these agreements. In addition to
that the mechanism of release of detained activists was also proposed.
Thus, it was decided to hold and extraordinary parliamentary session on
Tuesday, 28 January, in order to discuss the situation and political crisis in
the country and to find the common solution. The issues of non-confidence to government
and its resignation, withdrawal and annulling for the dictatorial 16 January
laws and stop of repressions against the Euromaidan activists are expected to
be discussed. Yanukovich has already ordered Parliament speaker Volodymyr Rybak
to be ready for the parliamentary session. Yanukovich stated that one side of
the resolving of crisis is represented by his talks with opposition, but the
results of these talks should be implemented through the work of Parliament.
People on Maidan and in the streets reacted emotionally on the
statements of oppositional politicians regarding the results of the talks and
demanded decisive steps. Opposition in its turn calls for the national strike
and mobilization in case the agreements between them and Yanukovich will be
broken.
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| Protesters taking the building of Lviv governor's office (Image: AP) |
Meanwhile massive protests spread beyond Kyiv, as tens of thousands of
protesters are continuing to occupy governmental buildings in several
governorates of Ukraine. Buildings are seized by protesters, governors of some
governorates resign, and police withdraws refusing to obey the orders. Lviv,
Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnitsk governorates are under control of people, where
they declared the authority of National People’s Council; Ivano-Frankivsk,
Zhytomyr, Cherkassy, Sumy and other governorates are under siege. Thus, people refuse
to recognize the current government and form revolutionary councils to
represent people’s authority.
This fact was really alarming for Ukrainian current government and
president and caused the readiness for some compromises, think oppositional
leaders.
Though the situation is still hard and escalated, as many people are
wounded as a result of the clashes. At least 15 activists were kidnapped and
still not found. “Berkut” and riot police were arresting people in the streets
and holding them during hours in the police cars, beating and torturing.
Terrible video showing “Berkut” soldiers humiliating captured protester whom
they’ve stripped naked on the terrible frost and were laughing at him and
forced him to pose as they were making pictures and videos of it, went viral
and caused a real scandal. Ministry of Interior has apologized for these deeds
of policemen, though it’s unclear whether those responsible for it will be
punished. The same could be said about numerous cases of kidnappings, arrests
and beatings. Dozens of protesters and citizens who even didn’t participate in
the protests are being held in the prisons and face trials.
International community is very concerned with the events happening in
Ukraine. Western diplomats and politicians claim there could be no
relationships with Ukrainian authorities anymore as they were before, thus the
relations with Ukrainian government will be revised.
President of European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has been talking to
Yanukovich on the phone urging him to stop violence and escalation and to start
negotiation with the opposition. As it was mentioned earlier, Yanukovich
promised Mr. Barroso, that state of emergency won’t be imposed.
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| Barricades on the line of confrontations (Image: AP) |
Ex-President of Poland and one of the heads of EU special mission to
Ukraine during the preparation to signing of Association Agreement, Aleksander
Kwasniewski, has warned that escalation of the situation in Ukraine could be
really very dangerous not only for Ukraine, but for EU as well, and there could
be terrible consequences such as economic problems and mass migration. In
addition to that there will be moral fault of European governments for the
deaths of people in Ukraine, that weren’t stopped and prevented. He called on
the sides to stop violence and to start the real, not fictional, dialogue. EU
is ready to mediate, added the politician.
Head of OSCE earlier has also stated that negotiations are necessary and
that he is ready to become a mediator. European team of politicians and
diplomats and representatives of EU institutions is expected to arrive in Kyiv
on Friday in order to discuss the situation with Yanukovich and opposition and
to help in negotiations.
Yanukovich also had phone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as
well. Angela Merkel also urged him to start dialogue and to stop escalation of
violence and added that she will meet Yanukovich in the nearest future. US Joe
Biden as well had a telephone conversation with Yanukovich urging him to stop
violence, as the relations between the two countries could be seriously revised.
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