You're reading: Prosecutor general admits force an option when restoring order in Kyiv center

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema has said he does not rule the use of force if the residents of the tent camp on Independence Square and activists who remain in administrative buildings in the center of Kyiv offer armed resistance to law enforcement agencies during their eviction from the occupied territories.

“The option of force is possible. If there is armed resistance, police officers have the right to use their weapons,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday, July 9.

However, when asked by reporters whether this means that there will be a violent confrontation between police officers and “Maidan activists,” Yarema noted that “there will be no confrontation” and that people would be detained if they offer resistance.

He also added that law enforcement officers would take measures if the Maidan participants “do not vacate the captured buildings today, tomorrow, or in the near future.”

Yarema said that according to latest reports, 19 government buildings remained captured in Kyiv.

Yarema plans to issue an address to the Interior Ministry and
Security Service leadership to urge them to take measures to vacate the
administrative buildings occupied by activists. If this is not done,
these people will be held criminally liable, he said.

The prosecutor general stressed that the “camouflage-clad” people are
committing crimes by seizing administrative buildings and “want to turn
the symbol of a revolution into a caricature.”

At the same time, the prosecutor general presumed that efforts to put an end to these activities could be resisted.

Following the presidential elections and local elections in Kyiv, the
authorities have been trying to reach an agreement with members of the
so-called ‘Maidan self-defense’ to persuade them to leave Khreschatyk
Street and the Ukrainian House cultural center and resettle to the
Pechersk Fortress or an area outside Kyiv. However, while some of the
Maidan activists may agree to this, several activist groups are
categorically against it.

In this situation, conflicts have become more frequent on Maidan,
including night fights and even exchanges of fire, which has prompted
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko to say that, “to my great regret, the center
of Kyiv is not safe to Kyiv residents now.”

Klitschko estimated the number of activists still staying on Maidan at up to 1,000.