Opposition leaders speaking before a large crowd gathered on Independence Square, were wholly divided. Klitschko got a luke warm response. Agitators in the crowd tried to stir unrest by shouting their disapproval. A number of coffins were transported forward towards the speaker’s stage with a demand to respect the dead. Orthodox priests led the mourning by prayers. This was repeated with more coffins and was used a a strong emotional demand not to accept any agreement with dictator Yanukovich who has blood on his hands.
The extremist leaders took the stage and in a fascist style rhetoric rejected this EU brokered deal. This leader made a clear threat and demanded the resignation of president Yanukovich by 10am tomorrow morning. If he doesn’t step down, the mob will march on the presidential palace and force him out. We will be armed and no one can stop us.
Entered another coffin pushed forward through the crowd and all were silenced in prayer.
All calls for no more bloodshed fell on deaf ears.
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An Orthodox priest walks under fire during clashes between
anti-government protesters and riot police in central Kiev
See the tough deal brokered for the Ukrainian people between opposition leaders and the government.
○ Peace deal brings Maidan protest in Kiev to an end :: RT.com view
The point of no return has been breached. From tomorrow morning, all hell will break lose unless Yanukovich steps down and leaves office. Today parliament voted to rescind the powers of the president in favor of decisions by parliament. The minister of Interior responsible for the the clashes of the last three days was made the scapegoat and parliament voted for his dismissal.
The crowd in Independence Square will be forced by agitators and armed thugs to continue mob violence in the morning and more bloodshed. Cool heads cannot prevail, the genie is out of the bottle and Ukrainian people will be led to a brutal civil war. The makeover from a protest to a revolution happened months ago. The most populist speaker wins over the crowd.
{Update} ○ Reuters: Ukraine crowds want Yanukovich out despite political deal
The EU mediators are on their way back home to their Brussels headquarters.
○ Kyiv Post: EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine – Live updates
○ Maidan protesters say EU brokered deal is not enough
○ Ukraine’s Bloody Thursday Swells the Ranks of the Revolution
My recent coverage of the protests in a diary – Regime Change In Ukraine – Who Bugged Nuland, An Embarrassment.
It certainly seems that the point of no return has been reached. Perhaps partition of the country into Ukrainian speaking and Russian speaking countries will be possible. More likely, civil war will break out. I fully expect Putin to send in “peacekeepers” as he did in Georgia. I know a few ethnic Ukrainians in the Chicago area. My friends from Polish neighborhoods know more. When I speak of ethic neighborhoods you must understand that Chicago is not so much a melting pot but a smorgasbord of ethic enclaves. The Polish ethnics and the Ukrainian ethnics are divided by religion and have not intermarried nearly as much as the Italians and the Irish, although their cultures are much more similar. I know one man of mixed Danish and Polish ancestry who married an Ukrainian Catholic woman. Ukrainian Catholics are similar to Roman Catholics (he tells me) but reject the primacy of the Pope and use a Ukrainian language liturgy. The Ukrainian ethnics I know are violently opposed to Russians generally and Putin in particular. It seems to me to be akin to the Irish Catholic/ English relationship, which does not fare well for peaceful compromise.
I realize Ukrainians are, in general, anti-Semitic but that is true of all of Eastern Europe.
As for being extremists or terrorists, the same can be said of the American revolutionary group the “Sons of Liberty”.
Is this your observations/assessment: “This was repeated with more coffins and was used a a strong emotional demand not to accept any agreement with dictator Yanukovich who has blood on his hands.” Or are you quoting a news source? (One that would seem to be in agreement with Presidents Obama and McCain.)
From Chris Floyd Masking Tragedy in Ukraine
That was my assessment as I watched the live broadcast on Euronews. Later I read the purpose was a vigil in memory of the fallen victims to the violence. In another article it stated the opposition leaders were caught by surprise as the first coffin moved forward through the crowd toward the stage. Watching the anger of a few agitators in the crowd when Klitschko spoke and the haphazard way the coffins moved forward and the brief moment of prayer, I tend to agree with the latter. Staged to shock, get the emotions high as the Svoboda leader took the stage and riled the crowd to reject the EU deal and march on the presidential palace in the morning with the slogan: “It should be Yanukovich in the coffin waiting for burial.” He didn’t mince his words nor did he speak any longer in memeory of the dead.
I specifically meant this: “dictator Yanukovich.” Don’t think that elected heads of states should be called dictators. Regardless of how corrupt and thuggish they are. At least not before they’ve been in office for so long that it’s clear the elections are rigged and they have no intention of ever being voted out of office.
International standards of maximum time in office would seem like a good idea — except they could so easily be subverted by handing off power to family and cronies as needed. Sort of like what Americans are seemingly beginning to accept with Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton.