Tens of Thousands Rally in Ukraine after West Pledges Support
Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Ukraine on Sunday in a bid to wring new concessions from President Viktor Yanukovych, buoyed by pledges of support from Europe and the United States.
More than 50,000 people could be seen on Kiev's barricaded Independence Square -- that has become the epicenter of a two-month protest movement -- and thousands more were arriving.
Opposition leaders including former foreign minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and boxer turned politician Vitali Klitschko attended, a day after winning endorsements from Western officials including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at a security conference in Munich.
Yanukovych has over the past few days accepted the resignation of his prime minister and repealed the hugely controversial anti-protest laws that had radicalized the protest movement.
But the opposition is demanding more concessions including an overhaul of the constitution to take away some of the president's sweeping powers.
The protest movement is also demanding a presidential election scheduled in 2015 be brought forward to this year, while demonstrators in the streets want Yanukovych to resign immediately.
The 63-year-old leader "should resign along with parliament if he wants a peaceful resolution," said Oksana Hodakivska, a dentist from the northwestern region of Zhytomyr, at the Kiev protest.
Hodakivska said she did not hold out much hope for Western pressure on Yanukovych.
"EU officials can temporarily stop the violence when they visit Ukraine but they are not going to keep coming here.
"It's all in our hands," she said.
But Yuriy Krenyuk, a pensioner from the Ivano-Frankivsk region, said Western powers could help resolve the crisis by putting pressure on the foreign assets held by Ukrainian oligarchs who back Yanukovych.
"If the oligarchs' bank accounts are blocked then the question of Yanukovych's resignation can be resolved very quickly," he said.
"Without the president's resignation, people will not leave the Maidan," he said referring to Independence Square by its local name.
Adding to the political confusion in the country, Yanukovych has since Thursday been on medical leave due to an "acute respiratory illness" so negotiations with the opposition have been suspended.
Yanukovych earlier approved an amnesty for activists arrested in more than two months of protests -- a key opposition demand -- but only on condition that official buildings occupied by the protesters are vacated.
But the standoff in the barricaded tent city on Independence Square showed no sign of easing.
"We understand that this system, this regime cannot and will not behave differently," Klitschko said in Munich on Saturday. "And that's why they have to go."
The opposition fears that the authorities could be preparing to declare a state of emergency, after the military on Friday called for "urgent steps" to ease the turmoil.
Military analysts say that is unlikely, however, since the loyalty of the rank and file is doubtful as young soldiers may share the same aspirations as the protesters.
The protests that have plunged Ukraine into its most acute crisis since independence in 1991 began when Yanukovych in November turned down a partnership pact with the European Union under pressure from former master Moscow.
They have since spread far beyond Kiev and what started out as a pro-EU movement has turned into a campaign to oust Yanukovych.
Four people, two protesters and two police officers, have been killed in clashes, according to an official death toll.
In December, Ukraine, which is mired in deep economic trouble, accepted a $15 billion (11 billion euro) bailout and heavily discounted gas supplies from Russia.
However, President Vladimir Putin last week said the financing would not be released in full until a new government was announced in Ukraine.
Piling further pressure, Putin's economic adviser Sergei Glazyev warned Yanukovych would lose power unless he suppressed a "creeping coup".
Russia sparred with Western powers at the Munich conference over Ukraine, condemning what it said was foreign interference in another country's internal affairs.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov condemned Western support for the protesters, asking: "What does incitement of increasingly violent street protests have to do with promoting democracy?"
However, Kerry said the standoff in the ex-Soviet country was about fighting for "a democratic, European future".
In an Internet question-and-answer session last week, U.S. President Barack Obama urged "a government with greater legitimacy and unity" including the opposition and protesters.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland is due in Kiev this week, as is the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Washington and Brussels are mulling possible sanctions against Ukrainian officials.
European officials have expressed outrage over the fate of Dmytro Bulatov, a protester who said he was kidnapped and tortured by unidentified captors for over a week.
Germany and Lithuania have offered to host Bulatov, who the authorities have ordered to be placed under house arrest on suspicion of inciting unrest, to receive medical assistance.
Source: Agence France Presse
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