Ukrainian President Monitors Unrest at Home on Visit to China

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ANDREW E. KRAMER 15 minutes ago

Though the government is largely ignoring protesters’ demands, it has said the police are barred from the use of force against peaceful protesters.

• In Kiev City Hall, Energized Protesters Settle In for a Long Winter’s Uprising

  Ukrainian President Monitors Unrest at Home on Visit to China

  

  Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

  Antigovernment protesters in Independence Square on Wednesday in Kiev.

  By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ANDREW E. KRAMER

  Published: December 4, 2013

  KIEV, Ukraine — The bulletins started arriving from President Viktor F. Yanukovich’s press service at 6 a.m. Ukraine time on Wednesday — not with updates about the besieged public buildings or the occupation of Independence Square by thousands of protesters here — but with news of his visit to the Museum of Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses in Xi’an, China.

  Related

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  • The Lede: Video of Police Brutality in Kiev Fuels Rage (December 2, 2013)

  • Biden Faces a Delicate Two-Step in Asia (December 3, 2013)

  
  
  As widespread civic unrest continued for a fourth day by demonstrators clamoring for his resignation, Mr. Yanukovich proceeded with a long-planned state visit. He saw the ancient collection of artifacts, met with the government chairman in Shaanxi Province, toured a factory of the Chinese Aviation Industrial Corporation and flew on to Beijing for a business conference.
  In Kiev, the interior minister, Vitaly Zakharchenko, whom many here hold responsible for a violent and bloody crackdown on protesters by riot police early Saturday morning, issued a statement saying that he had given orders to police banning “the use force against participants of peaceful gatherings that are taking place in the capital of Ukraine and other cities.”
  With Mr. Yanukovich largely ignoring the protesters’ demands and the police standing down, protesters encamped ever more deeply in Kiev City Hall and at least two other public buildings, and all throughout Independence Square. It seemed clear that the civic action that some are calling the “Euro Revolution” seemed to be shaping up as a contest of stamina and patience.
  “It’s a war of attrition,” said Yuri Levchenko, an official with the nationalist Svoboda Party. “Whoever gives up first,” he said, “loses.”
  There were increasing signs that Mr. Yanukovich’s decision not to sign political and free trade accords with the European Union, under pressure from Russia, had put him in a politically untenable situation. It has undoubtedly raised sharp risks for his country, which faces a severe economic crisis and is in desperate need of a financial package of $17 billion or more.
  Ukrainian officials had been in discussions with the International Monetary Fund over an aid package, but ultimately said they were unwilling to carry out the painful austerity measures and other changes that had been set as a condition for help.
  At some point, they may have no choice. The Ukrainian Central Bank was forced to intervene in currency markets on Wednesday to prop up the hryvnia.
  Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have been looking to Russia and China as alternate sources of financing. Both countries have helped Ukraine in the past, but as the financial situation worsens it is not clear that additional assistance will be forthcoming.
  A deputy prime minister of Ukraine, Yuri Boiko, traveled on Wednesday to Moscow, where he met with Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev and a deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov. Russia has shown no tolerance for the sort of civil disobedience playing out in Kiev and Mr. Medvedev warned Mr. Boiko of the Kremlin’s aversion to instability.
  “You are having quite an active political season now,” Mr. Medvedev said, according to the Interfax news service. “Certainly, we are closely following what is going on in your country, but, undeniably, this is Ukraine’s internal affair. Although, certainly, it is very important to maintain stability and order in the country.”
  Western leaders, in recent days, have issued their own demands, warning Ukraine that relations would suffer badly if there were a repeat of the bloodshed Saturday when riot police violently dispersed some protesters.
  The statement by Mr. Zakharchenko, promising no further use of force, came amid intensified international criticism, from Western governments and human rights groups, over Saturday’s events, and as Kiev prepared to welcome a large group of foreign ministers for a meeting of the ministerial council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
  Even before the outbreak of unrest, Secretary of State John Kerry had announced that he was canceling his plans to attend the conference, in part to send a signal over Mr. Yanukovich’s last-minute decision to back away from far-reaching political and free trade agreements with the European Union. Mr. Kerry went instead to Moldova, which has signed a preliminary version of the accords.
  The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, arrived in Kiev on Wednesday and met with opposition leaders in Independence Square, where they have established a tent city and a stage featuring virtually round-the-clock parade of speeches or musical performances.
  “It is clear that Ukraine is in the midst of huge internal discussions,” Mr. Westerwelle said in a statement released by the German government. “Here Europe must be active, because it is about Europe.”
  Meanwhile in Kiev, demonstrators continued to occupy City Hall and the Trade Unions building, and had also take over the International Center for Culture and Art, where hundreds of protesters were sleeping on the corridor floors and volunteers were serving sandwiches of smoked fish.
  Demonstrators continued to surround the nearby Cabinet Ministry building in a bid to paralyze the government and also sought to block the entrances of the Central Bank next door. 
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