UKRAINE: Protesters attack police bus as demonstrations continue in Kiev

Record ID: 322081

  • Title: UKRAINE: Protesters attack police bus as demonstrations continue in Kiev
  • Date: 30th November 2013
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (NOVEMBER 30, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTEST ON MIKHAILOVSKA SQUARE IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6HMAIUELK8DGB19BUHZRHZEN8
  • Story Text: A group of young men attacked a police bus with sticks and their fists on Saturday (November 30), after the bus drove through a square in Kiev where thousands gathered to demonstrate against President Viktor Yanukovich and a violent crackdown on protesters overnight.
    An estimated 4,000 protesters demonstrated in a square outside of the monastery where some 200 people fled after police started beating protesters with batons and lobbing stun grenades into the crowds from a protest the night before.
    Tension had been building since Friday (November 29), when Yanukovich declined to sign a landmark pact with European Union leaders at a summit in Lithuania, going back on a pledge to work toward integrating his ex-Soviet republic into the European mainstream.
    On Friday live bands had played earlier and the presence of mainly young people, some of whom were in their teens, had brought almost a party spirit to the demonstration when police moved in, first firing stun grenades and then wading in with batons.
    TV footage showed police beating one young woman on the legs and kicking young men on the ground. Several people were given emergency treatment on the spot for cuts to the head.
    Kiev protester Yulia explained to Reuters why she was protesting.
    "Because at night, at 4 in the morning, like fascists attacked Kiev the same way, our riot police attacked the protesters and beat up every one: students, women, children. They're wounded in the head. It looked horribly and everyone has seen it, and you know about it. It's impossible to live like this," she said.
    Protester Petro agreed.
    "What else? What else can we do? There is nothing else for us to do but to come here and to express what we want because politicians from one side or the other side always manipulate us, and all we have left is to say what we want and to protect our children and the future of our children ourselves."
    The Interior Ministry said the riot police moved in "after the protesters began to resist the (ordinary uniformed) police, throwing trash, glasses, bottles of water and flares at them".
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