UKRAINE: Tens of thousands of opposition supporters gather in central Kiev to demand Ukraine sign landmark deal with the European Union

Record ID: 214100

  • Title: UKRAINE: Tens of thousands of opposition supporters gather in central Kiev to demand Ukraine sign landmark deal with the European Union
  • Date: 24th November 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF OPPOSITION LEADERS ON STAGE LISTENING TO UKRAINE'S ANTHEM
  • Embargoed: 9th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: European Union,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA22MG1XO3UGVXKHTTNZX9EEIUX
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of Ukrainians, bearing EU flags and chanting "Down with the gang!", marched through the capital on Sunday (November 24) in a pro-Europe rally denouncing President Viktor Yanukovich's U-turn in policy back towards Russia.
    In the biggest street demonstrations in Kiev since the Orange Revolution nine years ago, opposition leaders called on Yanukovich to go ahead with the signing of a landmark agreement with the European Union on Nov. 29 as originally planned.
    Prime Minister Mykola Azarov's government, which stunned European leaders on Thursday by announcing it was suspending preparations for signing a key pact with the EU after years of negotiations and reviving trade and economic talks with Russia, should step down, they said.
    The signing of the so-called association agreement, which would mean the former Soviet republic also joining a free trade zone with the EU, was to have been the centrepiece of an EU summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, next Friday.
    Signing the agreement would have marked a historic swing westwards away from Russia, Ukraine's old Soviet master, and had angered the Kremlin which had threatened trade retaliation and aroused fears of cut-offs of strategic supplies of gas.
    "We need to force Viktor Yanukovich to change his humiliating decision and to sign in Vilnius on November 29 an agreement on association with the European Union. We have to choose it and to fight for it, because it is much more than just an agreement," said daughter of the opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, Yevhenia Tymoshenko, citing her mother's address to protesters.
    Opposition leaders say Yanukovich had never really intended to go ahead with the signing at Vilnius and used the protracted process of negotiations as a cover to secure a lucrative deal with Russia which would also secure re-election in 2015.
    "President Yanukovich has to fulfil the will of the Ukrainian people and the demands of the Ukrainian law and on November 28 sign the agreement in the name of the Ukrainian people which will make Ukraine a part of Europe," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of Batkivschina opposition party addressing the rally.
    "If the agreement is signed - it will be implemented by a new president, a new government and a new parliament, which will represent your will, the will of our great European country. Impeachment to Yanukovich, resignation to Azarov and Ukraine - to the European Union. Long Live Ukraine," Yatsenyuk added.
    The opposition supporters say they would remain on streets until the agreement with the EU is signed.
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