The third Ukrainian president (2005-2010) Viktor Yuschenko condemns a crackdown on Euromaidan protesters on Kyiv's Independence Square and calls on incumbent president Viktor Yanukovych to dismiss Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko and chief police officers who authorized the use of force.
“The Interior Minister should be held liable from the political point of view for the crackdown on peaceful student protesters by a riot police unit with unprecedented brutality, for beating young people by trained special forces officers, for publicly said lies in attempts to justify all this. The actions taken by the police last night cannot be justified in a democratic, civilized country,” Yuschenko said in a written comment sent to Interfax -Ukraine.
According to him, the violence by “young people in the uniform” against their civil peers for their political views may “trigger a civil war.”
“This is a Belarus-type political scenario,” Yuschenko said.
He called on those involved to bring the situation along with civilized norms, where citizens are free to express their position and hold peaceful meetings, including for announcing political demands on authorities.
