Editor's Note: The Kyiv Post is providing continuous coverage of the protests in Kyiv and other cities following the government's decision on Nov. 21 to stop European Union integration by rejecting an association agreement. The rallies started on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square). The events can be followed on Twitter using hashtags #euromaidan and #євромайдан or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EuroMaydan.
Read the coverage of the Dec. 9 events here.
Read the coverage of the Dec. 8 events here.
Read the coverage of the Dec. 7 events here.
Read the coverage of the Dec. 6 events here.
Read the coverage of the Dec. 5 events here.
Read the coverage of the Dec. 4 events here.
Read the coverage of the Dec. 3 events here.
Read the coverage of the Dec. 2 events here.
Read the morning coverage of the Dec. 1 events here, and the afternoon and evening coverage here.
Watch video of EuroMaidan events here on live stream and hromadske.tv
Shakhtar Donetsk Champions League game being shown on Maidan
Dec. 10, 10:32 p.m. The television channel of Ukraine’s richest man and President Viktor Yanukovych’s ally Rinat Akhmetov has proudly reported live from Independence Square where the Shakhtar Donetsk-Manchester United Champions League match is being broadcast to protesters.
Although the actual game is being broadcast live on another channel (1+1 affiliated with billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky), the on-the-ground reporter of Akhmetov’s TRK Ukraina voiced pride in seeing the freezing fans who are out there in sub-zero, bone chilling weather welcome the live entertainment on a big screen.
Shakhtar is the only Ukrainian team playing in the Champions League, Europe’s most prestigious soccer club tournament.
Shakhtar Donetsk belongs to Akhmetov. At one point during the 2004 Orange Revolution, Shakhtar players took the soccer pitch in a game without their signature orange colors in an apparent symbolic rejection of the color that came to symbolize the mass, peaceful uprising over a rigged presidential election in favor of Viktor Yanukovych.
During the TRK Ukraina news broadcast, pro-European rallies were shown in Luhansk, Simferopol and Ternopil with a neutral to positive bent. – Mark Rachkevych
Ashton holds 3.5-hour talk with Yanukovych, meets with opposition leaders
Dec. 10, 9:34 p.m. The European Union’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton had a three and a half-hour “substantial meeting” with President Viktor Yanukovych today “on all relevant issues,” official Twitter feeds say. Afterward she met with opposition leaders and headed to Independence Square (please see below). A press conference is tenably set for Dec. 11 in Kyiv. –Mark Rachkevych
Ashton joins 5,000 EuroMaidan demonstrators on Independence Square
Dec. 10, 8 p.m. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, on a two-day visit to Kyiv to help find a way out of Ukraine’s political crisis, stopped by a festive Independence Square to join roughly 5,000 protesters. She stood with Arseniy Yatseniuk, who leads the opposition Batkivshchyna Party of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The crowd chanted “Europe! Europe!” when they recognized her. — Oksana Grytsenko.
Prosecutors will seek release several arrested protesters
Dec. 10, 7 p.m. Right after President Viktor Yanukovych said so, the Kyiv prosecutor’s office annouced that it will ask a court to free some people arrested in the EuroMaidan demonstrations. In a statement, prosecutors said they will take “into consideration the family obligations of suspects and would put to the court the question of changing some measures of restraint from arrest to something else.” On Dec. 1, at least 10 protesters, including a journalist from Dnipropetrovsk, were arrested after clashes with police in front of the presidential administration. They were ordered to stay in pretrial detain for two months and in prison and face up to 8 years in prison on suspicion of organizing mass riots if convicted. — Interfax-Ukraine, Anastasia Forina
Trade union allows protesters use their premises through Dec. 25
Dec. 10, 6:57 p.m., Ukraine’s federation of trade unions allowed EuroMaidan use its premises, namely House of Trade Unions on Khreshchatyk street and Zhovtnevy Palace on Instytutska, till Dec. 25 and further on, in case its necessary. According to Dec. 9 resolution obtained by Ukrainska Pravda, management of the buildings is to sign all the necessary paperwork with the protesters, due to the need the “use of force against peaceful protesters.” Earlier today, the protesters were given the order by Kyiv Pechersk Court dated Dec. 10 to vacate the House of Trade Unions immediately. — Vlad Lavrov
Opposition leaders to speak at 7 p.m. on Idependence square
Dec. 10, 6 p.m., Leaders of three opposition parties Arseniy Yatseniuk, Vitali Klitschko and Oleh Tiahnybok will give speeches at the 7 p.m. on Idependence square, reads post on Batkivshchyna party website. — Anastasia Forina
Ashton meets with Yanukovych
Dec. 10, 5:45 p.m. , The European Union’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton is now meeting with president Viktor Yanukovych, Ashton’s spokesperson Maya Kocijancic said on Twitter, Interfax reports.
Dec. 10, 5:15 p.m., Court says House of Trade Unions must be vacated
Protesters who have been staying inside the House of Trade Unions must vacate it today, a ruling says by the Kyiv Pechersk District court made on Dec.10. The photocopy of the document was posted by UDAR lawmaker Iryna Herashchenko on her Facebook page. It reads that nobody aside from employees of the House of Trade Unions can be inside the building and that the ruling has come into force and has to be executed immediately.
Meanwhile, lawmakder and commandant of the building, Stepan Kubiv, said that EuroMaidan volunteers have the right to stay in the building until Dec.25 according to a leasing contract, he signed with the acting director of the trade union building. — Anastasia Forina, Mariia Shamota
Kravchuk condemns police attacks on protesters, Yanukovych disagrees
Dec. 10, 3:45 p.m. “When people are causing disorder, riot police officers should arrest them and take them away, but never beat them. Or even worse, do it in front of cameras,” said former first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk during the meeting of Viktor Yanukovych and three former presidents, broadcast on TV. “Those who raided the Maidan abused the law,” Kravchuk added.
Viktor Yanukovych interruped Kravchuk, saying, “when they (the protesters) started to attack the riot police, they’ve got their response. And another time, people prevented those cars to get there,” Yanukovych said, laughing. He refered to the events of Dec. 1 and Nov. 29, when protesters were pushed from Maidan Nezalezhnosti and beaten by riot police, who were “cleaning the square for the trucks with equipment for New Year Tree to enter,” as explained later. — Olga Rudenko
Yanukovych wants government to speed up work on deal with EU
Dec. 10, 3:18 p.m. During his meeting with three former presidents of Ukraine, broadcasted on TV, President Viktor Yanukovych said that the government received the order to speed up the work on compensating the cons of signing the Association Agreement.
“They are allowed to bring in as many professionals as they need for this job. And I think that they will finish it till the next EU summit in March (of 2014),” said the president. — Olga Rudenko
President ready to release protesters arrested in clashes with police
Dec. 10, 3:10 p.m. Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk has said that besieged President Viktor Yanukovych has agreed to release protesters arrested in clashes with police on Dec. 1 on Bankova Street, a demand laid out by opposition leaders.
“The president agreed with the point of Maidan,” Kravchuk told journalists at Palace of Ukraine in Kyiv.
Kravchuk also claimed that Ukrainian officials are ready to sign a long-anticipated association agreement with the European Union in March, which the government previously abandoned on Nov. 1, ahead of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Nov. 28-29, so long as the 28-member bloc is also ready. — Oksana Grytsenko
Beating of reporters is investigated
Dec. 10, 2:55 p.m. Nineteen criminal cases were opened on the beatings of the reporters covering rallies in Kyiv, said Mykola Tomenko, MP and chairman of the Verkhovna Rada committee on freedom of speech and information (Batkivschyna faction). Four more reporters are in process of registering the cases in the police. — Interfax-Ukraine
U.S. and EU want the stabilization of situation
Dec. 10, 2 p.m. Both U.S. and European Union expect the situation in Ukraine to be stabilized peacefully, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told the journalists after meeting with the leaders of opposition factions in Kyiv on Tuesday.
She described her meeting with opposition leaders as “very productive.”
Later on Tuesday Nuland plans to meet with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. — Interfax-Ukraine
Catherine Ashton to meet with Viktor Yanukovych at 3 p.m.
Dec. 10, 1:45 p.m. The European Union’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton is planned to meet with Viktor Yanukovych at 3 p.m. local time and the opposition and civil society afterwards, according to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reporter Rikard Jozwiak.
Dec. 10, 12:44 a.m. Yanukovych is meeting former Ukrainian presidents, without opposition
Despite President Viktor Yanukovych reportedly agreed on Dec. 9 on proposal of former president Leonid Kravchuk to sit at the round table with opposition leaders and try to find a way out of ongoing political crisis, on Dec, 10 it turned to be two round tables.
The first one including Yanukovych, Kravchuk and one more former president Viktor Yushchenko has already started as Yushchenko’s spokeswoman Iryna Vannikova told to Ukrainska Pravda web-site.
Opposition leaders said they were not invited for the meeting. There are also no TV broadcast of the round table despite it was announced at presidential web-site.
Another round table has been scheduled for 2 p.m. at Ukraina Palace, Interfax news agency reported. The report said that “public opinion leaders, representatives of those in power, of political parties” to participate there. Neither Yanukovych nor leaders of opposition have been mentioned among the participants of the meeting. It remains unclear whether it will be broadcasted on TV. — Oksana Grytsenko
Dec. 10, 11:26 a.m. Presumed hired thugs block EU delegation building on Volodymyrska Street
Peaceful morning on Maidan, two central metro stops closed for entry
Dec. 10, 10:53 a.m. It is a peaceful morning on Independence Square. Around 5,000 people are currently there. They are watching a documentary about the 2004 Orange Revolution which on a huge screen mounted on the stage. However, Maidan Nezalezhnosti and Kreshchatyk metro stops are closed for entry. Traffic access to the square is blocked by barricades erected by protestors. Several buses and a truck are parked at the intersection of Bohdana Khmelnytskoho and Khreshchatyk Streets’ around 100 National Guard troops troops are seen there as well. – Yuriy Onyshkiv
Catherine Ashton express concerns over forcible entry into Batkivshchyna party office in Kyiv.
Dec.10, 10:00 a.m., The European Union’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton expressed concerns over forcible entry into Batkivshchyna party office in Kyiv on Dec.9. Here’s her statement:
“On the eve of my visit to Kyiv, I follow with concern the reports that police forces forcibly entered the office of the biggest opposition party, Batkivshchyna. This comes on the afternoon of the same day that President Yanukovych proposed the establishment of a national roundtable, bringing together the leaders of all political forces and the three former Presidents of Ukraine. These latest events seriously risk to derail the process. I call on the Ukrainian authorities to exercise utmost restraint and refrain from any further use of force, in order to give space for a negotiated solution out of the current political stalemate.”
After the seizure of of Batkivshchyna Party computer seizures on Dec.9, online visitors are now redirected to the personal website of its leader Arseniy Yatseniuk www.yatsenyuk.org.ua. — Anastasia Forina
Injuries reported overnight near barricades of government buildings
Dec.10, 9:30 a.m. Interfax-Ukraine reported there were no incidents registered last night in the protester encampment on Kyiv’s Independence Square. However, Svoboda party said 10 people were injured in scuffles with police near the barricades that were cleared near the government buildings up the hill from Independence Square. Police succeeded in clearing the debris.
“More than 10 people are injured,” a lawmaker from nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, Yuriy Syrotyuk, told AFP. He said one suffered punctured lungs and several had broken arms or legs.
Twenty police buses were reported blocking the government building area where parliament, the Presidential Administration and Cabinet of Ministers buildings are located. They were also reported parked on Kyiv’s main street Khreschatyk near European Square and at the intersection with Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street, still surrounded by National Guard troops who take orders from the Interior Ministery.
The situation is calm near the city hall as well. The building has lights on inside and people enter it freely. — Interfax-Ukraine, EuroMaidan Facebook page
Dec. 10, 3:12 a.m. At about 6 p.m. on Dec. 9, roughly the same time police raided the opposition Batkivshchyna Party and other news websites went down, the Kyiv Post also suffered website problems. By about 10 p.m., the site appeared to be running normally again and experienced a spike in user traffic then. The cause is being investigated, but came when other news organizations reported their sites were under attack. The Kyiv Post has more than 1 million hits in the first 10 days of December, a record for the news organization. The newspaper remains committed to being an independent source of reliable news for Ukraine and the world with all available resources. — Brian Bonner
