Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday walked out of the parliament building to meet with demonstrators protesting perks which individual categories of citizens enjoy.
"The storming of the parliament building was stopped after the talks, but the demonstrators remain camped on Constitution Square near the parliament. A police cordon, deployed near the walls of the building, obstructed their attempts to break through," an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.
Deputy Kyrylo Kulikov of the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense faction told the press that the demonstrators had been asked to move away from the building.
The organizers did not urge protestors to storm the building, he said.
The place around the parliament building was filled with people.
Police were trying to push them away from the side entrance, the Interfax correspondent said.
A rally started near the parliament building on Tuesday morning to demand that perks granted to 16 categories of citizens be scrapped.
The demonstrators held posters reading: "Hands off the Chornobyl Law!" "Stop Lawlessness!" "You Killed Sons, Don’t Kill Mothers!" "We Oppose Annulment of Social Benefits!"
Some demonstrators were holding flags of the No One Except Us pan-Ukrainian public organization, and also red and state flags.
Most of the protesters were Afghan war veterans and people who did the cleanup work after the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.
