You're reading: Lawmaker: Any violence on Dec. 15 will come from authorities, not EuroMaidan protesters

An opposition lawmaker on Saturday ruled out the possibility of protesters who were demonstrating on central Kyiv's Independence Square resorting to violence.

“I state officially that the [protest movement] does not plan a single violent act or provocation,” former defense minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko, who represents the Batkivschyna party in parliament, told a briefing in Kyiv.

“If any provocations do take place, it is 100% definite they will have been organized by the authorities,” he said.

“The situation on the square is secure, calm and much calmer than outside the square. There are no criminals there, no one there drinks or steals.”