Police Pull Out of Kiev Square After Move on Demonstrators

[frigidmagi]

NYTimes

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.

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.

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.

Some of the pictures I've seen have been pretty wild. There was one of a protester dressed up in fucking plate mail taking a length of chain to the cops shield wall. It's getting insane over there.