KIEV, October 17. /TASS/. Nothing will change for the better in Ukraine as long as Pyotr Poroshenko is its president, Georgian ex-President and former Odessa Region’s Governor Mikhail Saakashvili, who now is the leader of the New Forces Movement, said at a rally in front of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, or national parliament, on Tuesday.

"There will be nothing good as long as Poroshenko is president. If he doesn’t hear you today, we must move to another location to demand Poroshenko step down and free Ukraine’s people," Saakashvili said amidst encouraging chants and slogans demanding Poroshenko’s resignation.

Saakashvili asked his supporters "not to lose heart till victory comes" and called on the protesters to assemble for another rally in downtown Kiev at the end of the day.

"If these people [lawmakers - TASS] do not take a single step in the interests of our people by the end of the day, we must think about more demands - that of the president’s resignation," he said.

He accused the Ukrainian president of usurping judicial power. "Over the past three to four years, we have seen only one thing: all we have witnessed is that one man has taken over all the courts and the entire Verkhovna Rada. There is no political process in Ukraine any longer. All we have is idle talk and the arbitrariness of one man," he stressed, adding that Ukraine is now going through a very crucial time for the nation’s future.