Protests Escalate in Ukraine

Dec. 8, 2013 5:23 a.m. ETKIEV, Ukraine—Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets here for a second weekend, blockading government buildings and demanding that President Viktor Yanukovych fire his cabinet and reject plans to form a closer alliance with Russia.
After speeches in the central Kiev square that pro-European protesters have occupied for the past week, crowds fanned out peacefully across downtown, crying “Glory to Ukraine!” and “Get the gang out!”

Protesters flocked to Kiev’s Independence Square on Sunday for a rally demanding Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich reject closer Russian ties. European Pressphoto Agency

Activists advanced in columns from the square and set up new barricades on roads leading to government buildings, saying they would prevent Mr. Yanukovych’s administration from working until he cedes to their demands. Protesters, angered by Mr. Yanukovych’s visit Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, tore down a statue of Vladimir Lenin, a potent symbol of Moscow’s historical dominance over this former Soviet republic.

Thousands of Ukrainians have been camping in the central square of the capital Kiev in a repeat of events nine years ago. WSJ’s James Marson explains what their demands are and why they have taken to the streets again. Photo: AP

Mr. Yanukovych’s government betrayed few signs of backing down, however. Though police were absent from the center of protests on a Kiev square, the security service announced investigations into unnamed politicians for “illegal acts aimed at seizing state power,” prompting claims from the opposition that they were the start of a planned crackdown.
With protests entering a third week, the opposition is struggling to convert popular anger into political gains that could bond this country of 46 million into closer relations with Europe. Opposition leaders lack constitutional means to force the government from power before a presidential election in 2015, and face divisions among protesters, many of whom deeply distrust anyone associated with Ukraine’s corrupted political system.
The street protests, sparked in November by Mr. Yanukovych’s refusal to sign a trade-and-political accord with the European Union, have plunged Ukraine into its biggest political standoff since the Orange Revolution nine years ago, which swept a pro-Western government to power.
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, in a telephone call Sunday to Mr. Yanukovych, stressed the need for a “political solution” to the standoff, the commission said. The EU’s foreign-policy chief, Catherine Ashton, it said, will head to Kiev in the next few days to try to help find a way out of the political standoff.

Thousands Protest in Kiev

People gathered on Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, to attend a mass protest on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets as the opposition called for President Viktor Yanukovych to fire his cabinet and reject plans to form a closer alliance with Russia. Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images

Protesters were incensed on Sunday by Mr. Yanukovych’s meeting with Mr. Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The two discussed economic cooperation and plans for a strategic partnership, Mr. Yanukovych’s press service said, sparking claims by the opposition that he had agreed to join a Moscow-led trade bloc in exchange for the loans and cheaper gas that Ukraine needs to prop up its creaking economy.
Statements by the two presidents’ press services denied that Ukraine’s entry into the customs union had even been discussed. But the denials did little to assuage protesters in Kiev.
Protest organizers had hoped to draw a million people Sunday and send an emphatic message to Mr. Yanukovych that a trade pact with Russia was politically unacceptable. While turnout appeared to be less than hoped for, the numbers at least matched last weekend’s rally, which was the largest in Ukraine since 2004, and weren’t this time marred by violence.
Around one dozen opposition and civic leaders gave speeches to the crowd packed on Independence Square and along surrounding streets, making a range of demands from the freeing of detained student protesters to the ouster of Mr. Yanukovych.
The loudest chants came when the crowd spontaneously erupted with “Get the gang out!” or “Get the criminal out!”—a reference to Mr. Yanukovych’s two spells in jail during his youth.
While protesters appear to have momentum for the moment, its leaders say they may have some difficulty channeling the popular outrage into concessions from the government because of widespread mistrust of politicians of all stripes.
Skepticism of opposition politicians in Ukraine harks back to the Orange Revolution, when mass protests swept leaders to power only to see them whittle away their gains with years of internal squabbles and backbiting.
Today many protesters are refusing to swear allegiance to any political party, but say they are attending rallies for fundamental changes.
“We don’t want to bargain one trouble for another,” said Anton Savidi, a 21-year-old student leader from Lviv, in an interview Friday. “We don’t want one gang to replace another. It doesn’t matter what the names of the ministers are. We want to change the rules of the game.”
The tone for the protests was set by the days of small student rallies that kicked off on Nov. 21, when the government announced it was suspending long-held plans to sign the EU pact. Opposition parties set up their own protest on a nearby square, but eventually joined the students on Independence Square.
“The opposition (leaders) don’t love us. We organized the protest with no flags and no politics,” Mr. Savidi said.
Larger protests were ignited after riot police brutally dispersed a crowd of a few hundred student protesters on Nov. 30.
Some politicians reached out to civic activists from the stage Sunday. In a letter read by her daughter, jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko called for an alliance between politicians and activists who oppose Mr. Yanukovych.
It remained unclear late Sunday whether the attempt to block the government’s work and force Mr. Yanukovych to give some ground would yield success.
The authorities remained largely silent, other than announcing the investigation into politicians by the SBU, Ukraine’s security service that used to be known as the KGB. Riot police blocked access to the presidential building and formed a protective cordon around several thousand people demonstrating in favor of the government near Parliament.
The opposition said the investigation would draw even more people to the square. But the opposition still faces the task of finding a response if the government stonewalls their demands, said Oleh Rybachuk, a minister in the government formed after the Orange Revolution who is now helping students organize. “The weakest point for the opposition is that they don’t have an exit strategy.”
—Katya Gorchinskaya and Matina Stevis in Brussels contributed to this article.
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com

Original post: Protests Escalate in Ukraine