KIEV, November 30, (ITAR-TASS). An attempt to organize a second ‘Euro-Maidan’ instead of the pro-EU rally, which the riot policy dispelled on Independence Square (the Maidan), was made on Mikhailovskaya Square located about 500 meters away.
About a thousand people gathered there but the Interior officials said the situation was quiet.
At the time of reporting, the demonstrators were waving a number of Ukrainian flag and an EU flag. They used the steps of the monument to Duchess Olga as a podium.
Entrance to the St Michael’s Monastery located nearby was free and about 150 people were staying inside. Some of those whom the Berkut riot police units dispersed on the Maidan in the morning were among the group taking shelter inside the monastery.
People were bringing foodstuffs for the protesters. Places for an overnight stay were also being made.
Reports indicated there were practically no policemen on Mikhailovskaya Square, except for a regular patrol outside the building of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.
On the Maidan, the number of policemen reduced considerably since morning and reporters counted about 70 police officers standing in a cordon. Most of the police busses had left and small groups of people were roaming around the place, sometimes shouting out the appeals to the passers-by to go to Mikhailovskaya Square.
In the meantime, the press service of the Interior Ministry released a report on the causes of the forcible action against the demonstrators on the Maidan.
“The police went over to active measures after the protesters had begun to offer resistance to the patrols, to hurl garbage, glasses and bottles with water at them and even tried to use burning wooden sticks against them,” the report said. “As a result, 35 people were detained. Administrative protocols on their offenses were filled out and the police set them free after that.”
The ministry promised “to do a departmental inquiry into the petitions from citizens on bodily damage they had received in the course of the confrontation /with the police/.