UKRAINE: Ukraine's opposition leaders call to cease violence and say the only way out of the deadlock is early elections

Record ID: 214145

  • Title: UKRAINE: Ukraine's opposition leaders call to cease violence and say the only way out of the deadlock is early elections
  • Date: 19th January 2014
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (JANUARY 19, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTEST ON INDEPENDENCE SQUARE (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER ARSENY YATSENYUK, SAYING: "We condemn violence, we did not gather here to give Victor Yanukovich and Berkut (Ukraine's riot police unit) law enforcement forces a reason to disperse our peaceful protest." PEOPLE LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER ARSENY YATSENYUK, SAYING: "We will not allow power to be seized through the bloodshed of victims, no government is worth... no power in Ukraine is worth the cost of loosing even one human life. This is why I condemn the violence that happened just now, this was not our plan." WIDE OF YATSENYUK ADDRESSING PROTESTERS FROM STAGE WIDE OF PROTEST (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER VITALY KLITSCHKO, SAYING: "Viktor Yanukovich, please stop now these ongoing actions, you are waging war on your own people. Stop aggravating the situation, do not pit the people against the police or the police against the people, you have brought the situation to a point where the people cannot wait any longer." PEOPLE LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER VITALY KLITSCHKO, SAYING: "Take the police, Berkut and provocateurs off the streets. Stop it, the only solution to this horrible situation is a premature parliamentary and presidential election. Find the courage, do not repeat the path of Ceausescu and Kaddafi because this match one way or the other will be won by the Ukrainian people." PROTESTERS CHANTING "GLORY TO HEROES" AND "GOOD GUYS"
  • Embargoed: 3rd February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAR8GPXB07HQHQUWN00TR2FUDQ
  • Story Text: Ukraine's opposition leaders have condemned violence and called for calm in an address to the large crowd gathered in central Kiev on Sunday (January 19) night.
    "We condemn violence, we did not gather here to give Victor Yanukovich and Berkut (Ukraine's riot police unit) law enforcement forces a reason to disperse our peaceful protest," said Arseny Yatsenyuk, addressing thousands of people in Independence square.
    As he spoke, clashes between radical protesters and police continued a few hundred meters away.
    "We will not allow power to be seized through the bloodshed of victims, no government is worth, no power in Ukraine is worth the cost of loosing even one human life. This is why I condemn the violence that happened just now, this was not our plan," Yatsenyuk said.
    Protesters clashed with riot police in the Ukrainian capital after tough anti-protest legislation, which the political opposition says paves the way for a police state, was rushed through parliament last week.
    A group of young masked demonstrators attacked a cordon of police with sticks and tried to overturn a bus blocking their way to the parliament building after opposition politicians called on people to disregard the new legislation.
    Despite the appeals from opposition leaders not to resort to violence, and a personal intervention from boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko, protesters continued to throw smoke bombs and hurl fireworks and other objects at police.
    The police appeared to show restraint during that fracas. The interior ministry said 20 police were hurt, more than 10 admitted to hospital treatment and four of those were in serious condition.
    As tensions continued into the night, police used water cannon against demonstrators gathered near the parliament building and the heavily protected government headquarters, eyewitnesses said.
    Opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko called on President Yanukovich to stop feeding the confrontation.
    "Viktor Yanukovich, please stop now these ongoing actions, you are waging war on your own people. Stop aggravating the situation, do not pit the people against the police or the police against the people, you have brought the situation to a point where the people cannot wait any longer," Klitschko said addressing the rally.
    He also said that an early poll is the only way out of the deadlock.
    "Take the police, Berkut and provocateurs off the streets. Stop it, the only solution to this horrible situation is a premature parliamentary and presidential election. Find the courage, do not repeat the path of Ceausescu and Kaddafi because this match one way or the other will be won by the Ukrainian people," said Klitschko.
    Earlier up to 100,000 Ukrainians massed on Kiev's Independence Square in defiance of the sweeping new laws - which ban rallies - and which Washington and other Western capitals have denounced as undemocratic.
    The rally, the biggest of the new year, was the latest in a cycle of public protests in the former Soviet republic since President Viktor Yanukovich made a policy U-turn in November away from the European Union towards Russia, Ukraine's former Soviet overlord.
    Several big protests in December attracted hundreds of thousands of people, while thousands maintained a vigil in a Kiev square demanding Yanukovich resign.
    Since the new year, demonstrations have been smaller, but hundreds of people are still camping in the square and 50,000 turned out a week ago.
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