2004 Eurovision Song Contest winner Ruslana Lyzhychko and activists took to a piano perched on a barricade in Kiev’s Independence Square Monday, playing Chopin, the national anthem and the Beatles’ “Let it Be.” Stationed across the square, riot police performed their own musical offensive, blasting Russian pop songs from a sound system.
Since November, demonstrators have been protesting the Ukrainian president’s plans for a closer alliance with Russia instead of tighter ties with Europe. Kiev’s Independence Square, where the largest demonstrations have occurred, now resembles a war zone, with protesters in army fatigues and bullet-proof vests patrolling an area full of tents and burning log fires.
The barricade where the piano was stationed is on Grushevsky Street, where demonstrators clashed with police at the end of January in violence that left several dead and hundreds hurt.
