I
have little doubt in my mind that the West is stirring up trouble in
Ukraine disguised as a democracy movement to screw with Russia. The
Ukraine had its own reasons for rejecting an agreement with the EU
that would have seriously shortchanged them.
The
Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovich, has stated his outrage at the
violent events which occurred in Kiev’s Independence Square, and
harshly condemned the actions that led to the employment of force
against the protesters.
RT,
30
November, 2013
The
Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovich, has stated his outrage at the
violent events which occurred in Kiev’s Independence Square, and
harshly condemned the actions that led to the employment of force
against the protesters.
“I
demand that the General Prosecutor's Office urgently provide me –
and Ukrainian society – with the results of a prompt and objective
investigation in order to properly punish the perpetrators,”
said the leader in his address to the Ukrainian people, published on
the presidential website on Saturday.
The
special task force, Berkut, armed with clubs and shields dispersed
the protesters at Kiev’s landmark Independence Square early on
Saturday. They had been demonstrating against the government’s
decision to suspend signing a key integration deal with the EU.
Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovich reads his notes before the plenary
session of the European Union's Eastern Partnership summit on
November 29, 2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania.(AFP Photo / Alain Jocard
Thirty-five people were reported to be detained. However, they were released later in the day. According to medics, 35 people were injured - seven of whom were hospitalized.
Thirty-five people were reported to be detained. However, they were released later in the day. According to medics, 35 people were injured - seven of whom were hospitalized.
After
the protest at the Independence Square was dispersed, between 5,000
and 10,000 protesters assembled in Kiev's St. Michael's Square on
Saturday evening to continue rallying against Yanukovich’s
government.
The
EU condemned the excessive use of force by the police during the
rally and urged Kiev to carry out an investigation and prosecute the
perpetrators, said both the European Union’s top foreign policy
official, Catherine Ashton, and the Commissioner for Enlargement and
European Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fule, in a statement given to
Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Saturday.
Fule
also urged the Ukrainian authorities to refrain from the use of force
on his Twitter account.
#euromaidan
#Ukraine:following
events with great concern,urge to refrain from use of force against
those peacefully expressing their views
The
US envoy to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, also condemned “the
violence against peaceful demonstrators.”
Meanwhile
a petition has been posted on the US White House website asking the
US government to help “peacefully
overthrow the current Government and President”
of Ukraine and to hold “democratic
elections for a new parliament and bring to justice all present
perpetrators of state power”.
The
petition has gathered about 40,000 signatures.
Another
petition created on Tuesday asked the US government to impose
sanctions on the Ukrainian president “unless Mr Yanukovich signs
the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement” The petition has gathered
about 116,000 signatures – which is more than the 100,000 threshold
needed for the petition to be reviewed by the administration.
Moscow
has said that it is ready for trilateral talks with Kiev and Brussels
over the economic consequences of the association deal between
Ukraine and the EU.
“We
were not the ones who proposed or insisted on these talks, but if the
European Union and Ukraine want us to discuss the economic
consequences of the association to our trilateral relations, we are
ready, in principle, to so,”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Nebenzya said on Saturday.
Political
commentator Aleksander Nekrasov told RT that there isn’t much
support among the Ukrainians for the association with the European
Union.
“I
don’t think there’s much support [for the deal with the EU]. I
think there’s a lot of confusion, a lot of people don’t
understand what’s going on. The most important thing for the
Ukrainians to know is that there won’t be a free visa area. They
won’t be able to travel to the West; they will encounter a lot of
opposition from the West. The feeling is across the EU is that
immigrants steal their jobs, they use their benefits and that they
are a burden to their economies. I don’t understand why Ukrainians
would want to go to countries which are basically hostile to them.”
Chris
Weafer, a senior partner in the Marco advisory consulting firm told
RT that the people will be convinced not to join the EU, as Ukraine
needs more financial support then the EU can provide.
“We’ve
heard from the bureaucrats and leaders as expected, disappointment
with Ukraine’s decision but to be honest there will probably be a
certain sense of relief as well. Ukraine has got a population of 45
million people, a very struggling economy; it needs a great deal of
financial support to grow and pull out of this slump it’s in. The
European Union is not in so financial shape nor is it in political
shape to start making overtures to Ukraine. It has far more pressing
problems in countries like Greece and Spain. Both sides will be happy
to come back to this when they are in a stronger position,”
Weafer said.
RIA
Novosti / Andrey Stenin
Meanwhile,
several dozen people wearing masks have gathered near St Michael’s
Square bearing sticks, and performing a coordinated series of actions
in front of the media and passers-by. It is unclear why they decided
to adopt the masks and what their purpose is. Locals speculate that
they are practicing self-defense to guard against the riot police.
Compare that with the bias of this article
Ukraine's
bloody crackdown leads to call for sanctions
Violent
dispersal of pro-European protesters sparks opposition demand for
trade embargo
1
December, 2013
Ukraine's
opposition leaders called for western sanctions to be imposed and
urged demonstrators to further protest action after police used force
to break up a demonstration on Saturday against the government's
refusal to sign a trade deal with the EU.
Kiev's
central Independence Square has been ringed by police to prevent a
repeat of the rally, which saw up to 10,000 people waving flags,
singing songs and demanding the resignation of President Viktor
Yanukovych.
The
protest was prompted by Yanukovych's confirmation on Friday that he
had decided to turn his back on a landmark pact with the EU, instead
keeping Ukraine closely aligned with Russia.
About
500 police officers descended on the square – the symbolic heart of
the 2004 Orange Revolution against elections rigged in favour of
Yanukovych, as well as Ukraine's 1990 anti-Soviet protests – at 4am
on Saturday, attacking protesters with truncheons. Yanukovich said on
Saturday he was "deeply outraged" by the events which led
to violent confrontation between protesters and police. He called for
an immediate investigation, though did not specifically blame the
police for the incidents.
"I
just can't believe it happened," said student Igor Mitrov, with
a bandaged head and a bloodstained Ukrainian flag in his hands.
Mitrov, 22 was among protesters regrouping in the grounds of Kiev's
St Mikhailovsky monastery. "The police were beating the girls
with rubber batons and we, the guys, were trying to defend them. But
without success."
Yaroslava
Fedorash, 20, from Lviv in western Ukraine, described how police
surrounded and pushed protesters into a metro station. "We were
not resisting: we were just singing the Ukrainian anthem," she
said. "I saw a girl whose hand was broken and the ambulance took
her from the site."
The
police action has generated international outrage. Britain's envoy to
Ukraine, Simon Smith, tweeted that he was "hugely disturbed this
morning to see pictures of deplorable intimidatory violence".
The prominent Ukrainian human rights campaigner Yevhen Zakharov said
the attack on peaceful demonstrators was unprecedented.
Yanukovych's
opponents called the police action an attempt to "intimidate"
people and demanded the resignation of the country's most senior
police officer, Vitaliy Zakharchenko. They called for a general
strike and urged people to attend a rally on Sunday to demand that
Yanukovych step down and western countries impose sanctions.
Yulia
Tymoshenko, the jailed former prime minister and opposition leader,
whose incarceration on corruption charges is suspected by the west of
being part of a political vendetta, called on Ukrainians to "step
up against dictatorship and violence of Yanukovych" in a letter
to the nation read by her daughter.
Vitali
Klitschko, world heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the
opposition Udar, or "Punch", party, warned that the
violence against protesters should not be excused. "If we
forgive such actions today, tomorrow they will repeat, tomorrow and
the day after tomorrow, and Ukraine will turn into a police state."
Ukraine's
prime minister, Mykola Azarov, said on his Facebook page that he was
"outraged and concerned" about the incident but did not
have enough information to make a final judgment. Ukrainian media are
reporting that Sergiy Liovochkin, the president's chief of staff, has
resigned in protest over the violence.
Police
claimed their officers had been responding to complaints from
municipal workers who said the demonstrators had been preventing them
from preparing the main square for Christmas. "The actions of
Berkut [the riot police unit] started after the protesters began
fighting back at the police, scattering them with rubbish, glasses,
bottles and burning sticks," a police statement said.
Thirty-five
people arrested in the square were released following opposition
complaints. Antoliy Vershygora, the head of the Kiev ambulance
service, said seven people had been treated in hospital and that a
further 14 needed medical assistance.
It
was revealed on Friday that Yanukovych would not be signing an EU
association and free trade deal at a summit in Lithuania as he could
not afford to sacrifice economic ties with Russia. His decision was
condemned by the European commission president José Manuel Barroso
as a Russian "veto".
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