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Omaha Steve

(99,737 posts) Tue Dec 10, 2013, 07:21 AM Dec 2013

Western envoys go to Kiev hoping to defuse crisis

Source: AP-Excite

By JIM HEINTZ and MARIA DANILOVA

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Top Western diplomats headed to Kiev Tuesday to try to defuse a stand-off between President Viktor Yanukovych's government and thousands of demonstrators, following a night in which police in riot gear dismantled protesters' encampments outside government buildings.

Demonstrators have occupied the Ukrainian capital for weeks opposing Yanukovych's decision to freeze ties with the European Union and tilt to Russia instead.

Riot police in full gear flooded Kiev, confronting protesters through the night on snow-slicked streets, while a leading opposition party said heavily armed security forces broke into its offices and seized computer servers.

Yanukovych planned to meet on Tuesday with Ukraine's three former presidents in a search for a resolution to the crisis.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131210/DAAJCHNO2.html

Riot police block an opposition tent camp while displacing pro-European Union activists from their barricades at the Ukrainian presidential administration building in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013. Heavily armed riot troops broke into the offices of a top Ukrainian opposition party in Kiev and seized its servers Monday, the party said, as anti-government protests crippled the capital for yet another day. Elsewhere police dismantled or blocked off several small protest tent camps set up near key national government buildings in the city. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

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Western envoys go to Kiev hoping to defuse crisis (Original Post) Omaha Steve Dec 2013 OP

Ukraine protesters hold firm as US, EU step up diplomacy pampango Dec 2013 #1

The ex-miner sounds like... ReRe Dec 2013 #2

pampango

(24,692 posts)

1. Ukraine protesters hold firm as US, EU step up diplomacy

Reply to Omaha Steve (Original post)

Tue Dec 10, 2013, 07:37 AM

Dec 2013

About 2,000 pro-Europe protesters huddled by braziers in their main tented camp in snowbound Kiev on Tuesday, in defiance of riot police who herded them away from government buildings overnight.

Dozens of riot police removed barricades leading to the presidency, cabinet offices and parliament. But the demonstrators, who reject President Viktor Yanukovich's policy lurch towards Russia, have regrouped at Independence Square in central Kiev, where they have set up a makeshift tent village.

Ilya Shutov, an ex-miner from the eastern city of Donetsk, said the protesters would stay until Yanukovich left office.

"We were for the EU association agreement because we thought it would force our authorities to be civilised. Their refusal of Europe is a refusal to be civilised," he said. "Our goal is to get rid of the Soviet-like authorities."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/10/ukraine-idUSL6N0JP18S20131210

ReRe

(10,597 posts)

2. The ex-miner sounds like...

Reply to pampango (Reply #1)

Tue Dec 10, 2013, 08:42 AM

Dec 2013

... he's describing a bunch of recalcitrant Republicans from here in the USA.

Power to the people, EVERYWHERE! Stay strong, Ukrainian protesters!

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