All news

Majority of protesters in Kiev do not object to rapprochement with Russia

Poll showed that as many as 70 percent of the respondents polled joined mass protests because they were deeply hurt by cruelty law enforcers had used against the protesters

KIEV, December 10. /ITAR-TASS/. The main factor which prompted Ukrainian citizens to take to the streets in protest acts was an incident which took place on Independence square in Kiev overnight to November 30 when the protesters were cruelly beaten up by law enforces, says a conclusion made by experts of the Ilya Kucheriva Democratic Initiatives Foundation jointly with their colleagues from the Kiev International Institute for Sociological Studies.

The poll showed that as many as 70 percent of the respondents polled joined mass protests because they were deeply hurt by cruelty law enforcers had used against the protesters. A total of 53 percent of the respondents polled said they joined mass protests because Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich had not signed the EU Association agreement; around 50 percent of the respondents said they feared the threat of dictatorship in Ukraine and wanted new authorities in Ukraine who might change the life in Ukraine for the better. Only 17 percent of the respondents said they joined the pickets for fear that Ukraine might join the Customs Union.

The main demand voiced by the protesters was the release of participants in protests in the Independence square, giving up reprisals, the resignation of the Ukrainian president and the government and early presidential election, Director of the Kiev Institute for Sociological Studies Irina Bekeshkina told a news conference in Kiev on Tuesday.

The poll was conducted on December 7-8 in which more than a thousand respondents, aged 36 on the average, from Kiev and other regions of Ukraine were interviewed, Bekeshkina said.