Boston Globe: World will hold Yanukovych accountable for bloodshed
FOR THE past week, the message from all sides in Ukraine’s ongoing protests over the government’s preference for closer ties to Russia over the European Union has been: We don’t want more confrontation. After a violent police crackdown Dec. 1, government officials promised not to try to oust by force the tens of thousands of demonstrators occupying Kiev’s City Hall and Independence Square. Women protesters, dressed in traditional Ukrainian garb, have passed out warm tea and flowers to riot police assigned to guard government buildings. Protesters and police each took turns playing a piano, in the blue and yellow colors of both Ukraine and the EU, that was placed against police cordons. There was reason to hope that the current unrest could pass as peacefully as the country’s 2004 Orange Revolution, the massive protests that led to the ouster of a pro-Russian government following a rigged vote.