Police Pull Out of Kiev Square After Move on Demonstrators
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ANDREW E. KRAMER
Ukraine’s authorities called a halt to the crackdown in Independence
Square after a night of clashes with protesters who have been rallying
against the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovich.
Police Pull Out of Kiev Square After Move on Demonstrators
Protesters scuffled with riot police officers at Independence Square early Wedne
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: December 11, 2013
KIEV, Ukraine — After a night of clashes with protesters in Independence
Square, security forces appeared to pull back Wednesday from the
central plaza in Kiev where demonstrators have been rallying against the
government of President Viktor F. Yanukovich for more than two weeks.
Multimedia
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Ukraine’s Forces Move Against Protesters, Dimming Hopes for Talks (December 10, 2013)
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Ukrainian Protesters Struggle to Keep Police and Cold at Bay (December 10, 2013)
The police had taken control of a large section of the square and
brought in front-end loaders and other heavy equipment to clear it. But
by 11 a.m., the police presence had dwindled and pedestrians were
walking freely through the square.
The interior minister, Vitaliy Zakharchenko, issued a statement on
Wednesday saying the overnight crackdown had been needed to ease traffic
congestion in Kiev and promised that there would be no dispersal of the
protesters in the square.
“No one infringes on citizens’ rights to peaceful protests,” he said.
“But we cannot ignore the rights and legal interests of other citizens.”
He said the clearing of the streets was carried out in accordance with a
court order. Many protesters had been calling for Mr. Zakharchenko’s
dismissal after a bloody crackdown on demonstrators on Nov. 30. Although
the police pushed forcefully through the crowd in the square early
Wednesday, they did not use their truncheons and there was no repeat of
the flagrant violence of two weeks ago.
The effort to clear large parts of the main protest site overnight was a
stinging rebuke to Western diplomats who thought they had received
promises that force would not be used against peaceful demonstrators.
Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the leader in Parliament of the opposition
Fatherland Party and a main organizer of the protest movement, said the
police action showed that Mr. Yanukovich was dismissive of Western
leaders, and of Ukrainians.
“He spit in the face of America, E.U. countries and 46 million
Ukrainians,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said in remarks from the stage at
Independence Square, where the sound system was still functioning on
Wednesday. “We won’t forgive this.”
Those officials were inevitably left wondering if they had miscalculated
in urging leaders of the protests to negotiate with Mr. Yanukovich and
in their own efforts to do so. The crackdown by the authorities came
after a three-and-a-half-hour meeting between Mr. Yanukovich and
Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
The diplomatic consequences became apparent almost immediately.
“I was among you,” Ms. Ashton said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
“The authorities did not need to act under the cover of night.”
And in unusually strong language, Secretary of State John Kerry
expressed the United States’ “disgust” with the authorities’ decision to
use force. “This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a
democracy,” he said in a statement.
He added: “As church bells ring tonight amidst the smoke in the streets
of Kiev, the United States stands with the people of Ukraine. They
deserve better.”
Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who was in Kiev as the
police action unfolded, visited Independence Square on Wednesday morning
before heading to a meeting with Mr. Yanukovich.
Hours after the Western diplomats arrived on Tuesday for meetings with
the president in an effort to defuse both the country’s slide into
political chaos and a deepening financial crisis, thousands of riot
police officers and security troops fanned across Kiev, putting the
Ukrainian capital in a virtual lockdown.
Officers descending a slope past the Hotel Ukraina punched an opening
through a barricade that protesters had heavily reinforced. Officers
later winched a rope to the barrier and ripped it down entirely. Ice and
slush on the streets added to the unfolding confusion as some officers
slid into a confrontation with demonstrators, who chanted “Peaceful
Protest! Peaceful Protest!”
There were fights and shoving matches as officers pushed into the plaza
from virtually all sides, taking up positions and blocking the crowd’s
movements with interlocking shields. At least one of the tents or
another makeshift structure erected by demonstrators caught fire.
Officers in helmets pushed through the crowds with shields but did not
use the truncheons hanging at their sides.
As the security forces spread throughout the square, a large crowd of
protesters brandishing sticks, clubs, metal rods and anything else they
could find massed in front of the Trade Unions building, which leaders
of the demonstration had turned into the headquarters of what they call
the National Resistance.
People first took to the streets nearly three weeks ago, in anger over
Mr. Yanukovich’s sudden decision to scuttle far-reaching political and
free-trade agreements with the European Union that had been in the works
for more than a year and that he had promised to sign.
The storming of the plaza was especially surprising because Tuesday had
largely been a day of consultations and discussions among senior
officials. The talks with Western diplomats had focused heavily on
Ukraine’s acute financial troubles; a deepening cash crunch could leave
the country broke within months.
Along with Ms. Ashton, Ms. Nuland returned to Kiev after making a brief visit here last week
and then traveling elsewhere in the region, including to Russia, where
she urged senior officials to help resolve the crisis in Ukraine.
Mr. Yanukovich also met with the three former presidents of Ukraine, to
begin what the government described as a process of “round table”
discussions to resolve the crisis.
By 3 a.m. Wednesday, witnesses said that the police had largely divided
the crowd into sectors and had cleared a substantial portion of the
plaza. They then stood in formation but did not appear to be making
arrests.
At one point, protesters in construction hats, bicycle helmets and other
protective gear rushed toward the officers, with blows being landed by
both sides. Burning barrels tipped over, sending up plumes of smoke.
Roman Bakus, 30, had been standing in front of a long line of police
officers in the embattled plaza and was knocked down by their advance.
“Of course we are afraid, but we are all together,” said Mr. Bakus, who
was wearing a bicycle helmet. “Of course we could lose, but we will
achieve something anyway. We’ll stay here until the end. If we lose
today, three times as many people will come out tomorrow.”
At that, the crowd began singing the Ukrainian national anthem, and Mr.
Bakus and others took off their helmets in salute.
At least one man was on the ground, apparently unconscious. He was
carried off by volunteer medics who came running with a stretcher.
Throughout the occupation, protesters had established first aid
stations, canteens, volunteer security forces and cleaning crews.
They listened to speeches, danced to musical performances and gathered around fires to keep warm.
Late on Tuesday night there were a series of intermittent blackouts —
unusual for Kiev — that apparently foreshadowed the arrival of the riot
police.
Even before that, the continuing civic uprising had begun to take a toll
on Ukraine’s already imperiled economy. Borrowing costs for Ukraine
rose to their highest level in years on Tuesday and the central bank was
forced to intervene to support the currency as investors fled from a
country with its government under siege, no budget in place for next
year and an increasingly acute need for a rescue package of as much as
$18 billion.
Ukraine remains caught in a tug of war between Europe and Russia, which
are vying for political sway over the country’s future. Both are both
deeply wary of putting up cash, however, given the uncertain political
situation and Mr. Yanukovich’s long track record of playing East against
West, most recently with his move on the accords.
In rejecting the accords, Mr. Yanukovich said he could not accept
conditions of an accompanying rescue package from the International
Monetary Fund. He was also under heavy pressure from the Kremlin, which
threatened draconian trade sanctions if Ukraine signed the trade pact
with Europe. If Mr. Yanukovich thought he was making a clever maneuver,
stringing along the European Union while he extracted a better deal from
Russia, the plan exploded when protesters rushed into the streets.
“Yanukovich was playing a game where he thought he could maneuver the E.U. and Russia to his benefit,” said Stephen Sestanovich,
a Russia expert and a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign
Relations. “The whole idea was to get both sides to pay.”
Instead, he now has no deal with anyone. Russia has indicated some
willingness to help, potentially with a combination of lower gas prices,
the refinancing of existing debt and, perhaps, a small bridge loan, but
not until the political turmoil has been resolved.
A Russian deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, said in New York on
Tuesday that Mr. Yanukovich and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia
would meet again in a week.
The possibility that Ukraine could be tipped back into Russia’s orbit
has set Western officials scrambling, in part to put together a more
palatable aid package that perhaps would persuade Mr. Yanukovich to
reconsider signing the accords.
Opposition leaders here said that they had received assurances in a
meeting with European ambassadors that Western financial assistance was
still available, and could serve as an alternative to a Russian bailout,
though the talks remain preliminary. But there was no indication that
the I.M.F. was softening its loan terms.
- Violence in Ukraine
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Map: Protests in the Ukrainian Capital
Protesters confront police officers in Kiev on Wednesday after overnight clashes. By morning, the police presence had dwindled.
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