Members of the BYT-Batkivschyna parliamentary faction have unlocked the presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the plenary session has started.
The members of this faction blocked the parliament’s rostrum on Tuesday demanding that the parliament consider a law on the decriminalization of the article of the Criminal Code under which charges were brought against Ukrainian former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and not to cancel social benefits to workers who were involved in the Chornobyl nuclear disaster cleanup.
The parliament was to start a new plenary week on Tuesday at 1000, but the parliament was paralyzed by the BYT-Batkivschyna faction members, who blocked the entrance to the presidium in the plenary meeting hall and put up a poster with the words "Freedom to Yulia!" over the presidium.
In addition, on Tuesday several hundred Chornobyl cleanup workers from different regions of Ukraine began picketing the Verkhovna Rada’s building.
The protesters previously stormed the building as the Berkut special task force tried to prevent them, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.
After a while they broke down the fence surrounding the square in front of the Ukrainian parliament, and assembled in front of the Verkhovna Rada. At present, all doors to the parliament building are now closed and no one is allowed to enter.
