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The following are quotes from some of the notable protesters. among up to 10,000 protesters gathered outside the Verkhovna Rada on April 27. Photos by Oleksiy Boyko, Peter Byrne The following are quotes from some of the notable protesters among up to 10,000 protesters gathered outside the Verkhovna Rada on April 27.

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They were demonstrating against the ratification of a Ukraine-Russia deal that allows the Russian Black Sea Fleet to remain in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol until at least 2042, in return for favorable natural gas import prices from Russia.

The Verkhovna Rada, however, like its Russian counterpart, voted to ratify the agreement.



Thousands of protestors gathered outside of the Verkhovna Rada building on the day of the ratification of the Black Sea Fleet deal with Russia.

Former Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko: “My position is quite clear. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has no military functions to protect Ukraine. It’s not part of any of our contingency planning".

"The fleet only creates problems for Ukraine because Russia goes to war whenever and wherever it wishes whether it’s an internal war in Chechnya or the war with Georgia. An American or Russian base in Ukraine would divide the country into two parts. That’s why the constitution clearly states there should be no foreign military base on Ukrainian soil,” Hrytsenko said.

Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko parliamentarian Andriy Shevchenko: “I think [the Russian Black Sea Fleet is] a threat to Ukraine’s national security. We are dealing with a country that is fully internally conscious and which is has its own mess and we are letting that inside our country.”

Former Former Minister Borys Tarasiuk: “I think that with this government we could forget about Euro-Atlantic integration. This government’s standards don’t even adhere to any European standards. I don’t see any prospect of Euro or Euro-Atlantic integration with government. Ukraine is absolutely not safer.



Opposition and pro-presidential lawmakers fight against each other during


The whole history of the Russian fleet being stationed in Ukraine has proven that it’s undermining our national security, they’re using this fleet and its presence for subversive activities in Ukraine and in the Crimea especially, and of course this is contrary to our strategic objectives to our national security and contrary to the Constitution of Ukraine. What do you say to people who say the Russian fleet is protecting Ukraine from foreign threats?

Our Ukraine parliamentarian Vyacheslav Kyrylenko: “Once Ukraine integrates its nuclear energy, shipbuilding and aviation sectors horizontally and vertically with Russia, we could very soon wake up one morning not in Ukraine, but in some “gubernia” (vassal state) of Russia.

The Russian fleet is in Crimea to spread Russia’s influence and this influence is rather huge. It already has taken over Sevastopol and Crimea and now it will dominate the region. Russia is protecting its interests in Crimea and is eying a huge swath of territory that it wants to take from Ukraine and when the circumstances allow for it, Russia will take that chunk of land now this possibility has been extended for another 40 years.”

Ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko: “A gang of bandits has taken your country from you and they’re inside parliament. They falsified the vote to ratify the Russian-Ukrainian pact. This was done unconstitutionally. What needs to be done is to unite our forces.



Smoke bombs are thrown in the session hall.

They closed Verkhovna Rada. They don’t want to work until May 11 because they did their deed. Starting today we will start touring the country to tell everyone what has happened because they don’t know what happened because the TV channels are blacking this protest out.”

Svoboda Party leader Oleg Tiahnybok: “This government is a bunch of liars. They’re telling us their plans will improve our living standards, our economy. All true patriots of Ukraine must remember that from this moment on, these…a new Ukrainian revolution has started. This won’t be the revolution of the Maidan [Orange Revolution] in 2004 or the independence movement of 1991, this will be a national revolution, a social revolution that will bring us to victory. We must come home to our villages, towns and cities and lift the Ukrainian spirit, to let them know what is happening in Kyiv. What they’re doing is a sheer mockery upon the dignity of the Ukrainian people. These traitors in parliament.”