KIEV, December 22, 4:58 /ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian opposition will gather one more people’s assembly, the so-called veche, at noon EET (at 14:00 Moscow time) on Sunday on Independence Square in the centre of the Ukrainian capital. This way of mobilisation of forces, attracting the supporters from other Ukrainian regions, primarily from western regions, was used thrice, last time on Sunday, December 15, when the demonstrators were offered to participate in the rally under the motto ‘Day of Dignity’. The leaders of three opposition forces - Arseny Yatsenyuk (Batkivshchyna) (fatherland), Vitaly Klitschko (UDAR) (punch) and Oleg Tyagnibok (Svoboda) (freedom) will hold the forthcoming people’s assembly under the motto “Common Ukraine - Common Maidan (the common protest action Itar-Tass eds)”.
The protest action is contemplated as some kind of response to an interview, which President Viktor Yanukovich gave to Ukrainian media on Thursday. He dwelt in detail on mutually advantageous relations with Russia that had been promoted at a meeting of the Ukrainian-Russian interstate commission on Tuesday, December 17. He also gave an assessment to the domestic political situation in Ukraine. “The political crisis, which had broken out at the end of this year, is not overcome, it is needed to draw conclusions from it,” Yanukovich stated. “Everybody, including the incumbent authorities, opposition and certainly the civil society should draw proper conclusions. People will make these conclusions themselves and we should take into account the mistakes that had been made,” the president added.
However, the Ukrainian opposition did not find a positive and constructive response to this appeal. The three opposition leaders said in a statement, which the press service of the Batkivshchyna Party had made public a day before the forthcoming people’s meeting, that the presidential statements and Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka’s report about the events on Independence Square on November 30 are “cynical”. The opposition leaders threatened to “draw attention to them again.” “All of us will go out on Independence Square at 12:00 EET on Sunday to show that there are several millions of us and we should not be ignored!” the statement reads.
The political appeals from the rostrum of the forthcoming people’s assembly will alter with the performances of local music bands.
Several oppositionists have proposed to round off the protest action on December 17. However, the appeals were made at the latest people’s assembly to protest until the day of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker marked on December 19 and even until Christmas, but only if the previous opposition demands, including the dismissal of the government and the punishment of those officials, who are responsible for the dispersal of a rally on Independence Square overnight to November 30, are fulfilled.