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Ukraine Demos: Protestors Erect Tent City in Kiev
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/opposition-protestors-in-ukraine-erect-tent-city-in-kiev-overnight-a-936728.html
Around 5,000 opposition protestors gathered in the center of Kiev overnight. The pro-European demonstrators erected tents and barricades on Independence Square. The opposition, centered around boxer Vitali Klitschko, now wants to blockade important administrative buildings.
Ukraine Demos: Protestors Erect Tent City in Kiev
December 02, 2013 – 12:13 PM
Pressure on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is mounting. Following Sunday's mass rally in Kiev at which violent clashes broke out, thousands of anti-government protestors spent the night in tents on Independence Square in the middle of the capital. With light rain falling and the temperature not rising above 4 degrees Celsius, many lit small fires to keep warm.
Opposition leader and world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko appealed to the demonstrators not to give up control of the city center during the night. "We have to mobilize the country and must not lose the initiative," he said. Klitschko is at the head of the UDAR Party (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms; the abbreviation also translates to "strike" or "punch"
. He is considered one of the strongest challengers facing Yanukovych in the presidential election scheduled for March 2015. A spokesman for the Klitschko opposition bloc announced a blockade of state administrative buildings from early on Monday.
The head of the far-right Svoboda Party ("Party for Freedom"
, Oleh Tyahnybok, said: "A revolution is starting in Ukraine. We are launching a national strike."
His remarks were broadcast live by Ukrainian and Russian television stations. Klitschko and Tyahnybok, together with the Fatherland Party of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, have formed a tripartite opposition alliance called the Action Group of National Resistance. Their aim is to bring down Yanukovych and set Ukraine back on a Europe-friendly course. The alliance wants to use the general strike to force new elections.
