President Viktor Yanukovych on Nov. 22 failed to meet the demand of protesters in Kyiv and veto the tax code adopted by parliament on Nov. 18.
About 3,000 protesters at 6:30 p.m. started erecting tents in back of a stage on Independence Square, where they plan to spend the night.
A Kyiv court has banned protests on the square and police say they will inform the protest organizers of the decision. "There is a court decision banning the demonstration," the press office for Kyiv police said.
The organizers of the grassroots protest, which unites hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners throughout Ukraine, have demanded the dissolution of parliament, the dismissal of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and two deputy prime ministers, Sergiy Tigipko and Borys Kolesnykov.
Entrepreneurs from all over the country attended the demonstration, including the man photographed below holding up a sign, reading "Kharkiv [region] is against [Prime Minister Mykola] Azarov’s type of taxation."
Organizers said they will now seek to impeach President Viktor Yanukovych because he did not veto the tax code today.
Yanukovych said on Nov. 22 he is ready to meet the protesters this week but ruled out an overhaul of the tax code. "I understand their demands very well (but) they will not be satisfied 100 percent," he was quoted by media as saying in Brussels.
Azarov, meanwhile, has defended the tax code as "the most liberal in Europe."
