Tymoshenko urges 'to defend Ukraine'
Jan. 20, 2014, 5:10 p.m. | Ukraine — by Interfax-Ukraine
Ukraine's ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has
expressed support for the protestors in Kyiv and called on the current
authorities to resign voluntarily.
За 15 хвилин до штурму
Перед зачитскою вулиці Грушевського, активісти спробували поспілкуватися із силовиками. Натомість правоохоронці просили не провокувати і відійти на беспечну відстань.
Близько години активісти простояли біля працівників міліції, спілкуючись з їхніми керівниками. В той час частина мітингувальників поновила барикади з колючим дротом.
Журналістам стріляють у ноги
http://hromadske.tv/episode/295
Зачистка вулиці Грушевського
http://hromadske.tv/episode/297
Beyond the Cusp
January 22, 2014
Ukraine Violence Expanding and Intensifying
As
the violence in the Ukraine, especially in their capital of Kiev where
demonstrators are estimated to exceed one-hundred-thousand almost daily,
and as the legislature and President Yanukovych are granting the police
with harsher laws which are due to take effect today, the
confrontations show little sign of abating in the immediate future.
President Yanukovych posted on his official website, “I ask you not to
join those who seek violence, who are trying to create a division
between the state and society and who want to hurl the Ukrainian people
into a pit of mass disorder. Now, when peaceful actions are turning into
mass unrest, accompanied by riots and arson attacks, the use of
violence, I am convinced that such phenomena are a threat not only to
Kiev but to the whole of Ukraine.” The stimulus for the violence comes
mostly from the Ukraine government, mostly simply backing the decision
of the President, chose to bow before Russian President Putin’s threats
and hardball tactics where he gave the Ukrainian leadership a choice of
continuing to open up and sign an agreement already negotiated with the
European Union to normalize preferred trading agreements which could
have led to admission of the Ukraine to the European Union and lose all
trading ties with Russia and the possibility of an energy embargo by
Russia cutting all flow of petroleum and natural gas in or out of the
Ukraine along the Russian border. President Yanukovych folded almost
immediately which will only serve to entice Putin to press his newly won
advantage even further if the Ukrainian leadership should decide to
placate the protesters, or should we call them rioters, and reopen talks
with the European Union. The show of weakness before President Putin is
raw meat placed in front of a starving wolf and could lead to the wolf
taking your arm with the meat.
The demonstrations have escalated with the police using water cannons despite sub-zero temperatures as well as rubber bullets, tear
gas and full riot gear. The use of truncheons has only served to enrage
more citizens and the unrest grew as more citizens decided to join the
demonstrations to protest the overt violence by police which many have
believed was completely uncalled for and the main reason for the
escalation by the demonstrators. There have been numerous government
buildings and vehicles put to the torch and some of the front line
demonstrators have taken to wearing helmets and other sports equipment
as makeshift riot gear including makeshift shields and bats along with
other blunt instruments making these demonstrators equally armed to the
frontline police units. A British news outlet noted that the violence is
confined to one central square, though it has raged out of control and
the local authorities have been unable to keep the outrage contained.
Reports claim that over a hundred demonstrators have been injured
needing medical attention while three were reported to have been blinded
and one lost an arm. So far, more than eighty police staff have
required hospitalization; thirty-two protestors have been arrested; and
thirteen face serious criminal charges including some who face sentences
of up to fifteen years for “disturbing the peace.”
Meanwhile,
laws were reportedly rushed through Parliament at the last minute that
prescribe jail terms for anyone blockading public buildings, ban wearing
masks or helmets at demonstrations, and making statements against the
government a criminal act. These are the laws that are set to come into
effect today according to the local news.
This
harsh reaction made hastily is very likely to inflame the people
further as they will see such laws as a return to Soviet style
enforcement and suppression of the citizenry. The people of the Ukraine
have properly recognized that their government sacrificed their future
by surrendering to President Putin’s open threats. The Ukrainian people
see their President as not having the backbone to stand up to Putin and
this was just the last straw as they have also become fed up with his
quasi-criminal activities which have included overt nepotism and the
channeling of contracts to close friends without seeking bids. Add to
this the arrest and imprisonment of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia
Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko whose popularity made her the greatest threat
to President Yanukovych in future elections. The demonstration
leadership has posted evidence of numerous crimes and other misdeeds
committed by President Yanukovych and his administration on the internet
requesting that Western Leaders freeze his illegal funds in foreign
banks but thus far the United States, European Union members and other
western leaders have ignored their pleas. There have also been posts by
the demonstrators asking for the people of the world, especially those
in free and democratic nations, to demand that the governments and other
international institutions take a stand on the crisis in the Ukraine.
These demonstrations and rioting is unlikely to end soon as the
demonstrators are simply trying to claim the right to control their
destiny and are going to continue to fight and anything the government
does to suppress the voices of the people using violence and new
criminal legislation passed targeting the demonstrators will only serve
to fuel these demonstrations with the violence actually proving to be
extremely counterproductive. This could probably be called the Ukrainian
Spring and this revolution is all about freedom, liberty and the fight
against corruption and Russian bullying tactics.
Thanks for support!
ReplyDeleteIhor