Hrushevskoho Street standoff remains
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Early on Jan. 23, thousands of demonstrators remained at the scene of the Hrushevskoho Street conflict that started on Jan. 19, two months into the anti-government protests triggered by President Viktor Yanukovych’s abrupt foreign policy U-turn away from the European Union in favor of Russia.
The protesters constructed barricades, piled up stones or threw them at police. Many men also continued to stoke a fire with car tires to decrease the visibility of the riot control police. Neither water from a fire hydrant nor flash grenades from police scared the protesters away. A crowd cheered on the frontline radicals, shouting “Out with the gang!” and yelled “Murderers!” at police. Women, discouraged from going to the scene, drummed on iron plates and metal sheets to keep up a constant din. Just before midnight, medical workers on hand did not have fresh casualties to treat. At the scene, it seemed that all demonstrators had a job — from ripping paving stones on the street for use as weapons, to filling sandbags with snow for barricades or handing out coffee, tea and sandwiches.
In the middle of European Square, two men prepared molotov cocktails for others to throw. One said: “We are peaceful men, but we can’t stay aside,” he said. “For 46 years of my life I did a lot for myself, now I want to do something for Ukraine.” Two expensive jeeps carrying a well-dressed man and woman stopped to drop off petrol for the molotov cocktails.
Police receive emergency powers
More violence appears likely after Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers approved sweeping emergency powers for police and after political leaders reached no deal in talks.
After the fatal early-morning attack on Jan. 22, Ukrainian police launched a sustained offensive throughout the day and were prepared for more. They made two coordinated charges on EuroMaidan anti-government demonstrators during a noon-hour offensive, inflicting at least 300 injuries. Advancing police fired on demonstrators with guns, struck them with batons, kicked and punched them, and used tear gas and stun grenades in an attempt to dislodge them.
Yanukovych, opposition reach no deal
The nation’s political leaders hastily convened a 2 p.m. meeting in an attempt to defuse one of the nation’s worst crises since independence in 1991. The meeting joined President Viktor Yanukovych with the three leaders of the opposition factions in parliament — Arseniy Yatseniuk, Vitali Klitschko and Oleh Tiahnybok. National Security and Defense Council Chairman Andriy Klyuyev also participated. Television showed the opposition leaders shaking hands with Yanukovych, a sight that disgusted critics of the president. Klitschko said later that shaking hands with Yanukoych was unpleasant, but he did so for the sake of the country.
The talks lasted three hours, but the two sides reached no agreement after breaking up at 5 p.m. on Jan. 22. It wasn’t clear when they would meet again. But the opposition launched what they are calling the People’s Rada of Ukraine as an alternative to the current government, a sign that prospects for an agreement are dim.
More than 20,000 gather on Independence Square
The three opposition leaders left the meeting with Yanukovych and went to Independence Square, where a crowd of more than 20,000 people gathered by 6 p.m. on Jan. 22. They renewed their demands for an early presidential election and prosecution of those responsible for violence against protesters, including the five deaths.
“We have two ways – one is to stop the bloodshed and hold responsible all who killed people and save the lives of every person. And we have 24 hours for this way. If there is no such a way – I’ll not live with a shame,” said Batkivshchyna Party opposition Yatseniuk said. “Tomorrow we’ll walk on together, even if the bullet (hits) the forehead, but fairly and courageously. Today we’re defending Maidan. Viktor Yanukovych, there are 24 hours left, make the decision – I’ve already made mine.”
Tiahnybok, the leader of the opposition Svoboda Party, said: “The regime has crossed all the possible borders and this is the regime that we cannot find any compromises with. The death of five heroes means that Ukraine will never be the same and it is different already. All the slogans we were discussing were based on either this or that, but there are no more alternatives any longer – the nation must win.”
“This visit to Bankova didn’t lead to anything,” Tiahnybok said of the presidential visit, referring to the street where the Presidential Administration is located. “I was sitting there and thinking: It seems like they don’t really understand what really happens now, they don’t want to make any conclusions, they are beholden to their employees more than to their country and people. Today we understood that all the next results will be just the same and there is no sense to talk to those who are blind and hate all of us here. That’s why we declared the People’s Rada of Ukraine. We will also collect signatures to make our authority legitimate. We should all declare once and forever: those who died today are heroes. And their families will never be left without support. We should be united otherwise there won’t be any tomorrow for us.”
Tiahnybok also emphasized the importance of being united, especially now, when there is evidence that Yanukovych is mobilizing the military for use in quashing demonstrations. “I understand that our hearts are breaking apart and the desire of vendetta burns us from inside. But revenge is the dish that is best served cold.”
Said Klitschko, who leads the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform faction in parliament: “Today (the authorities) are going to clean up Maidan and we plan to do everything so there will be no crackdown. I will do everything to avoid (more) bloodshed. I know that in this very second the president is watching this live broadcast. You, the president, you know that pre-term elections will change the situation without blood and we’ll do everything to achieve that. Also, I want to address police officers – you should defend people. I can guarantee protection for everyone who will come down to the side of people. Don’t use guns against peaceful people. Our key goal is to avoid crackdown. There will be more of us here tomorrow and we’ll win. Glory to Ukraine.”
Lutsenko endorses call for alternative government
Opposition leader and ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko earlier on Jan. 22 endorsed the call for an alternative government chaired by Klitschko. “And we should agree that the main topic of negotiations with the dictator (Viktor Yanukovych) now should be his resignation.” Lutsenko also called on all Ukrainians to go to Independence Square. “All to Maidan,” he said.
Yanukovych ‘doomed’
Inna Bohoslovska, a former presidential ally who left Yanukovych’s ruling Party of Regions, told the crowd on Maidan that the authorities are “100 percent doomed. Viktor Fedorovich, this is the end,” she said, calling on the protesters to persuade Yanukovych’s allies to leave.
“Will we we lend a hand to all those who leave Party of Regions?” she asked the crowd.
“Yes,” people shouted in response.
Defiance, fear on street
On the streets, a mood of defiance mixed with fear — perhaps on both sides — set in.
Protesters continued gathering tires, piling them up and setting them on fire near the entrance of Kyiv’s Dynamo Stadium on Hrushevskoho Street, creating a blinding wall of black smoke that billowed throughout the night and prevented the warring sides from seeing what the other was doing. Plumes of black smoke rose high above the 15-foot high flames.
The demonstrators also reinforced barricades on Independence Square — the headquarters of the protest movement — and armed themselves with gas masks, shields, sticks, crowbars, hockey sticks and steel rods. By late afternoon on Jan. 22, hundreds of them had resumed their positions near the entrance of Dynamo Stadium and the burned-out police vans they had seized on the first day of the confrontation on Jan. 19, triggered by the adoption of draconian laws curtailing free speech and freedom of the press. During the evening, they grabbed light boxes, concrete planters, advertising billboards and other objects to create a secondary barrier to slow any future police charge on the crowd.
The protesters also constructed a new, smaller catapult to launch objects at police to replace a larger one destroyed early on Jan. 22 by police. Some of protesters also threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at police throughout the day and others were seen trying to attack police guarding the Presidential Administration.
Azarov vows crackdown on ‘terrorists’
On the other side, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov pledged to crack down on what he called “terrorists.”
“Terrorists from the ‘Maidan’ (Independence Square) seized dozens of people and beat them. I am officially stating that these are criminals who must answer for their actions.”
Azarov’s Cabinet of Ministers passed a number of orders that effectively declared a state of emergency in Kyiv. Police ordered shops and businesses close the protest center to close by 6 p.m. for what appeared to be preparation for a crackdown. The orders allowed police to close roads and take whatever measures they deem necessary to clear the streets of protesters and restore public order.
Yanukovych, meanwhile, earlier in the day issued a statement regretting loss of life:
“My deepest condolences go out to the families of the victims of today’s events. And again I call on every Ukrainian citizen not to join radicals. I think we still can negotiate and resolve the conflicts peacefully. I also call on the opposition leaders to join the roundtable,” Yankovych said.
Five fatal victims
Medical personnel said that five people were killed, four from gunshot wounds and a fifth person from blunt injuries in a fall while escaping a police charge.
“There have been five people killed since midnight and around 300 wounded,” said Oleg Musiy, coordinator of medical services of EuroMaidan, in an interview with Hromadske Radio on Jan. 22.
Musiy said two of the fatal victims died because doctors couldn’t transport them for medical help as the riot police officers dispersed the crowd. One person died after a fall, Musiy said.
Police and prosecutors officially confirmed that two men died from gunshot wounds. Moreover, Kyiv police denied shooting any protesters while prosecutors said they are investigating the circumstances of the deaths
But the official denials were contradicted by eyewitness accounts, medical experts, photographs and video from the scene. Eyewitnesses said police were firing indiscriminately with rubber and regular bullets into the crowd periodically throughout the day, striking an unknown number of people.
Two fatal gunshot victims were identified.
One is Mykhaylo Zhyznevskyi of Belarus, Radio Liberty reports, citing the Headquarters of the National Resistance. The other is Serhiy Nihoyan of Armenia, who had been living in Dnipropetrovsk before he decided to join demonstrations as a self-defense guard in December.
A medical worker said that the gunshot victims died from wounds caused by metal bullets, not rubber ones. “I was on the scene when one of the victims came in. I saw the points of entry and was able to discern that the bullets that killed him were metal, not rubber bullets.”
Five protesters were killed in the clashes on Jan. 22, including four who died from gunshot wounds.
Two assaults, two retreats
In two noon-hour assaults on Jan. 22, police charged on a few thousand demonstrators massed on Kyiv Dynamo Stadium and chased them 500 meters down the hill to European Square. Then the police retreated once, only to return and retreat again to their positions near the stadium entrance and Mariinsky Park, leading to the government district that houses Ukraine’s parliament, the Presidential Adminstration and the Cabinet of Ministers.
An armored personnel carrier was scene as police massed their forces.
International condemnation
The fatal escalation of violence — believed to be the worst involving civil disturbances in at least several decades — drew a swift and angry response from Western officials and the nation’s political opposition, as Ukraine’s government continued to deny any blame.
Buzzfeed reported that the World Economic Forum in Davos withdrew an invitation to Azarov to attend or speak at the forum, two sources told the news outlet.
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine publicly announced that America had revoked the visas of several top Ukrainian officials implicated in earlier violence against EuroMaidan demonstrators in November and December, while warning that further sanctions could be applied more broadly.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso warned authorities that the European Union is considering “possible actions.”
Metal and rubber bullets used
The Jan. 22 violence marked a sharp escalation to the conflict that takes place only a half-kilometer from Kyiv’s main Independence Square, the epicenter of the anti-government EuroMaidan movement launched on Nov. 21. In previous skirmishes, police had used rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to repel advancing protesters — scary and painful to their victims, but not necessarily life-threatening.
But the ammunition on Jan. 22 changed to lethal bullets. A physician who attended to two fatal gunshot victims said the injuries were caused by metal bullets, not rubber ones, and some people found metal bullets on the ground.
Kyiv Post editor Christopher Miller stood next to a man who was struck in the chin by a ricocheting bullet that he recovered. Miller also recovered one of many shotgun shells littering the ground.
Journalists covering the scene continued to be under attack from police. Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych said he was fired on by a police officer using rubber bullets that missed him.
Another journalist providing live video of the conflict for Espreso TV was assaulted and kidnapped on Jan. 22 before being released. More than two dozen journalists have been assaulted, mostly by police, while covering the events.
Numerous pictures, video and eyewitness accounts also surfaced of police officers carrying rifles and long guns. The Ukrainian government also formally sanctioned the use of hand smoke grenades, tear gas, pepper spray, stun grenades and water cannons to disperse the crowd.
More than 70 protesters detained, bank accounts seized
The Interior Ministry says that they have detained 70 protesters, including 36 under the new anti-demonstration laws that could mean 15 years in prison for them if convicted. Prosecutors also submitted a petition with a Kyiv court to arrest and charge 16 protesters of the detained protesters
Also, authorities — citing the new anti-demonstration laws — seized bank accounts opened by EuroMaidan activists for collecting donations. The action came following a lawsuit by the Federation of Trade Unions, whose building was seized by activists in December for use as headquarters.
According to Law and Business Journal, the court also ordered property seized from opposition members of parliament Stepan Kubiv, Arsen Avakov, Sergiy Pashynsky, Valeriy Patskan and Serhiy Averchenko. Also, Dmytro Bulatov, who led the AutoMaidan car caravans to protest outside top officials homes, was reportedly arrested as well.
Retaliation on both sides
The pro-presidential Party of Regions headquarters on Kyiv’s Sevastopol Street in the Darnytsky district as set on fire, according to Oleksandr Danyliuk, head of the Spilna Sprava civic movement.
The president’s party, meanwhile, issued a statement calling on the political opposition to stop their “theatrical performance” and stop evading responsibility “for the illegal actions of their radical supporters.”
Police also broke up a makeshift medical unit at the National Academy of Science building on Hrushevskoho Street, throwing a smoke grenade inside to force people to fleed. One of the medical volunteers told the Kyiv Post that they had been treating many injured people. “There were many wounded. People with concussions, broken legs. Berkut (riot police) threw a smoke grenade to the building and we had to escape through a back entrance,” the volunteer said.
The medical center reopened later in the day and remained open overnight.
A medical volunteer recalled the police raid. He said they used a flash grenade before coming inside and attacking everyone they saw. “They beat me and they beat everybody, the medical staff as well as some of the injured protesters,” the man said, requesting anonymity because he fears revenge by the authorities. “They’re all devils.”
This story was written by Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner, who can be reached at bonner@kyivpost.com based on reports by the staff.
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