Ukraine: A pro-Europe people with pro-Russia leaders

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are united in fury against President Viktor Yanukovych.

This is “a new revolution,” said Ivan Farion in Vysoky Zamok(Ukraine).A million Ukrainians have packed European Square in Kiev to express their “anger, pain, and hope.” They are united in fury against President Viktor Yanukovych, and not merely because he backed out of an agreement to forge closer ties to the European Union, choosing instead to pursue ties with Russia. His ordering a violent crackdown on that peaceful gathering is what really made him “illegitimate in the eyes of the protesters.” Now the protesters are appealing to those members of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions “who may not support the criminal policies of the current government,” asking them to “move to the side of the people” and “form a new, pro-European majority” in parliament.

In the meantime, the protesters have got to “maintain the moral high ground,” said Ivan Kapsamun in Den (Ukraine). The government has “paid provocateurs” lurking in the crowds trying to incite violence against the police and government buildings. Demonstrators have to be vigilant and denounce any actions the government could use to justify sending tanks against them. The struggle is taking place on the ground in Kiev, “but we must not forget our goal: European integration.” The EU needs to speak up, said Le Monde (France) in an editorial. We Western Europeans have been “blind for too long to what is at stake in the struggle for Kiev.” It’s time for leaders in Brussels and European capitals to “say loudly and clearly that they support the peaceful European aspirations of the Ukrainian people.”

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