About 2,000 protesters, including veterans of the Soviet Afghan war and evacuees from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, scuffled with riot police outside Ukraine's parliament on Thursday when they rallied against plans to cut payouts and subsidies.
The protesters, who also included hundreds of traders and entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized businesses, broke through a metal barrier and tried to enter the building.
They were herded back by ranks of black-helmeted riot police who threw up a cordon around the building. There were no arrests.
The former Soviet republic is trying to cut budget spending under a pledge made last year to regain access to a $15 billion International Monetary Fund programme, but its austerity plans have run into strong public opposition.
Ukraine’s parliament is considering a bill that would allow the government to reduce payouts and subsidies awarded to people such as Afghan war veterans and rescue workers who worked at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.
The protests, which are now beginning to take place regularly, are symptomatic of growing discontent against the government’s austerity programme as a whole.
Steps such as tax and pension reforms have been met with demonstrations and the government has slowed down the implementation of other unpopular measures such as raising natural gas prices for households.
An IMF mission is in Kyiv for talks with the government, and sources close to the talks say it is likely to leave this week without agreeing to disburse further credit under the $15 billion bail-out programme.
The government’s unwillingness to raise heavily subsidised gas prices for households by 30 to 50 percent ahead of the October 2012 parliamentary election is the main stumbling block, the sources said.
