Janek Lasocki: Stalemate on Kyiv’s Independence Square
The demonstrators of EuroMaidan, occupiers of the heart of Ukraine’s capital for well over seven weeks, are now tired. The tent city is already well established and visibly less people are about than in early December – gone is the energy of when benches were being ripped from the streets to build barricades and students symbolically took down Kyiv’s statue of Lenin. But they remain doggedly resilient: they have survived two failed attempts to forcibly remove them (one violently) and now the on the other side of the barricades the young men of the riot police, the Berkut, stand and wait, armed with shields and sticks but unable to advance. President Viktor Yanukovych, confident after his quick deal with Putin, is now trying to wait out a group determined not to give up until he resigns. As 2014 begins, Kyiv is in a stalemate.