You're reading: EuroMaidan crowd greets Tymoshenko warmly as she hints of political future

In one of the greatest political reversals of all-time, President Viktor Yanukovych was stopped leaving Ukraine on a Donetsk tarmac while his imprisoned rival, Yulia Tymoshenko, was set free from prison by parliament and whisked to a waiting crowd of more than 100,000 people on Kyiv's Independence Square who listened attentively to the ex-prime minister. 

Tymoshenko walked free on Feb. 21 after she spent 30 months in jail for abuse of office, a conviction widely regarded as political persecution. On Feb. 22, meeting in emergency sessions, parliament decriminalized the сriminal сode articles that Tymoshenko was accused of violating. Hours later, Interfax-Ukraine news reported that border guards stopped Yanukovych while he was trying to leave the country. This morning, his whereabouts and fate are uncertain.

After leaving the hospital in Kharkiv, where Tymoshenko spent most of her prison time because of a bad back and other illnesses, in Kyiv on Feb. 22 thanked the crowd for her freedom and urged people to stay on the square, prosecute Yanukovych and “his goons,” and honor the slain victims of EuroMaidan who gave their lives for Ukraine’s freedom.

“This is the free country that you have given us as a gift,” Tymoshenko told people at the square, while seated in a wheelchair.

In her speech of about 20 minutes, Tymoshenko focused on the nearly 100 slain protesters and how their sacrifice must not be made in vain.

She also hinted on her role in the future of Ukrainian politics.

“I will be your guarantee that no one will betray you. You know politics is sometimes a theater. I will guarantee that you will always know what is going on backstage,” she said.

The crowd received Tymoshenko warmly, if a bit skeptically, since people remember that her wealth was also amassed during the lawless 1990s and her two stints as prime minister were far from models of good governance. In fact, some of her critics regard her as being just as corrupt as Yanukovych, to whom she lost the 2010 presidential election by less than 3.5 percentage points, only to be imprisoned the next year.

“What he said was fine but we’ll see if she fulfills what she promised,” said protester Hrihoriy Krot, 33, right after hearing Tymoshenko’s speech.

Others were far more impressed and hopeful that she will help lead the country out of its 23-year quagmire of post-Soviet corruption and drift.

“I think she was speaking very sincerely,” said Olena Zhuravska, 36. “I think she understood a lot in (almost) three years of prison. I could sense honesty in her words. She always knew how to speak well. Like her, I also believe that Ukraine will change to the better.”

Some protesters agreed that Tymoshenko belongs in the new government and should be able to run for a president in a special early election set for May 25 by parliament.

“She must take a position (in the new government) for sure. Maybe even to be a president or a prime minister. She is smart and knows economics well,” said Zhuravska.

One of Tymoshenko’s allies, Batkivshchyna Party lawmaker Andriy Shevchenko, looked very excited when he stood near the stage after Tymoshenko’s speech. He said he briefly saw his leader when she passed to the stage in her wheelchair and only got as much as a hand wave and a smile from her so far.

“I was hugely impressed with her speech,” he said, smiling. “I think we just saw a person who (in her heart) lived through every single day of EuroMaidan even though she’s never been here.”

“She has all the rights to occupy the highest positions in Ukraine, and to be the single candidate from opposition at the future presidential elections,” he added.

Having Tymoshenko run as the opposition’s unity candidate would mean that the leaders of the opposition Arseniy Yatseniuk, Oleh Tyahnybok and Vitali Klitschko would have to step aside. Previously, Klitschko had announced that he wanted to run for president.

Kyiv Post lifestyle editor Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]