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Police Pull Out of Kiev Square After Move on Demonstrators
Ukraine Forces Retreat, Ceding Square to Protests
(about 11 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — After a night of clashes with protesters in Independence Square, security forces appeared to pull back Wednesday from the central plaza in Kiev where demonstrators have been rallying against the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovich for more than two weeks.
KIEV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian authorities’ surprise decision to storm the central square occupied by antigovernment protesters here early Wednesday sharply escalated tensions with Western leaders, while an equally abrupt pullout by the police after a nine-hour siege created a growing sense of unpredictability about President Viktor F. Yanukovich’s handling of the crisis.
The police had taken control of a large section of the square and brought in front-end loaders and other heavy equipment to clear it. But by 11 a.m., the police presence had dwindled and pedestrians were walking freely through the square.
The strange enforcement action, which antagonized and energized demonstrators but did not clear them from the square, added to the problems of Ukraine’s economy. The country was already facing a severe cash shortage but in recent days has seen its borrowing costs rise to record highs, with the central bank forced to intervene to support the currency.
The interior minister, Vitaliy Zakharchenko, issued a statement on Wednesday saying the overnight crackdown had been needed to ease traffic congestion in Kiev and promised that there would be no dispersal of the protesters in the square.
Mobilizing after midnight, thousands of riot police officers and Interior Ministry troops broke through barricades around Independence Square, pushed demonstrators back and formed tight cordons around them. They then called in bulldozers and other heavy equipment to raze some of the protesters’ tents and barricades.
The security forces clashed with protesters and briefly tried to regain control of City Hall. Then at 10:30 a.m., they abruptly withdrew, raising new questions about Mr. Yanukovich’s handling of the crisis, which has seemed increasingly erratic. The retreat let protesters reclaim the square and they quickly rebuilt their barriers, this time using heaping bags of snow.
It was unclear if the action was intended as a show of force to alert demonstrators that they could be evicted at any time, or a demonstration for Russia, which is considering economic aid for Ukraine but views the uncontrolled political situation with alarm.
There was also the chance that Mr. Yanukovich wanted to send a message to senior diplomats who were in Kiev at the time of the raid, including the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and an American assistant secretary of state, Victoria Nuland.
Ms. Ashton, who met with protesters in Independence Square on Tuesday, and Secretary of State John Kerry both quickly issued statements rebuking the Ukrainian government for the use of force. Mr. Kerry expressed “disgust,” and in a show of support Ms. Nuland visited the square on Wednesday to distribute bread among protesters and the police alike.
Ms. Nuland later met with Mr. Yanukovich, where she said she issued stern criticism. “I made it absolutely clear to him that what happened last night, what has been happening in security terms here, is absolutely impermissible in a European state, in a democratic state,” she said, standing afterward on a street near buses of the riot police.
Reinforcing those words, a State Department spokeswoman in Washington said the United States had not ruled out sanctions, if the Ukrainian government resorted to force.
“All policy options, including sanctions are on the table, in our view, but obviously that is still being evaluated,” said the spokeswoman, Jen Psaki.
There were rumblings in Congress as well, where legislators were considering measures to deny visas to Ukrainian officials or even to freeze Ukrainian assets if the situation deteriorated.
At the same time, Ms. Nuland said she reiterated to Mr. Yanukovich the United States’ willingness to help Ukraine if it defied trade and energy threats from Moscow and signed political and economic agreements with the European Union. His decision not to sign those accords, despite promising to do so for more than a year, set off the initial protests, which gained momentum after a violent crackdown on Nov. 30.
“We also made clear that we believe there is a way out for Ukraine, that it is still possible to save Ukraine’s European future,” Ms. Nuland said. The European accords were expected to be accompanied by a rescue package from the International Monetary Fund, but Mr. Yanukovich had already rejected that aid because of the conditions attached.
Some analysts say Ukraine is expected to default on sovereign debt within two months without outside funding.
Ms. Ashton, at a news conference in Kiev on Wednesday, said that in her meeting with Mr. Yanukovich he had repeated that he wants to sign the accords, perhaps in the spring. Given the series of recent reversals, she said she had no choice but to accept his statements at face value.
Ms. Ashton said Europe, too, wanted to help Ukraine deal with its financial crisis, particularly the cash shortage that Mr. Yanukovich cited as a reason for his move to re-embrace Russia. Ms. Ashton noted that the political chaos was only making things worse.
“If your concern is short-term economic interests, what on earth do you think is happening to the economy now?” she asked. Ms. Ashton called on Mr. Yanukovich to start a dialogue with the leaders of the protest movement.
Increasingly caught between Europe and Russia, and more recently under pressure by the tens of thousands of people protesting in Kiev, Mr. Yanukovich and other officials have seemed increasingly unpredictable and have made seemingly strange statements.
The Ukrainian interior minister, Vitaliy Zakharchenko, issued a statement saying the official purpose of the raid was to open roads and improve the city’s choked traffic. “Main transportation arteries have been blocked by barricades, the necessity and appropriateness of which raise huge doubts,” he said.
After the security forces withdrew from the square, however, there was no change at all in the situation on the roads. The main road leading into Independence Square remained closed, as did a number of side streets.
Mr. Zakharchenko also said there would be no forcible dispersal of protesters from the square.
“No one infringes on citizens’ rights to peaceful protests,” he said. “But we cannot ignore the rights and legal interests of other citizens.”
“No one infringes on citizens’ rights to peaceful protests,” he said. “But we cannot ignore the rights and legal interests of other citizens.”
He said the clearing of the streets was carried out in accordance with a court order. Many protesters had been calling for Mr. Zakharchenko’s dismissal after a bloody crackdown on demonstrators on Nov. 30. Although the police pushed forcefully through the crowd in the square early Wednesday, they did not use their truncheons and there was no repeat of the flagrant violence of two weeks ago.
He said the clearing of the streets was carried out in accordance with a court order.
The effort to clear large parts of the main protest site overnight was a stinging rebuke to Western diplomats who thought they had received promises that force would not be used against peaceful demonstrators.
Many protesters called for Mr. Zakharchenko’s dismissal after the bloody crackdown on Nov. 30. On Wednesday, although the police pushed forcefully through the crowd, they did not use their truncheons.
Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the leader in Parliament of the opposition Fatherland Party and a main organizer of the protest movement, said the police action showed that Mr. Yanukovich was dismissive of Western leaders, and of Ukrainians.
In yet another ambiguous move, Mr. Yanukovich revived on Wednesday the idea of a so-called round-table meeting to negotiate a resolution to the protests. It was a direct invitation by Mr. Yanukovich to political leaders, in contrast to a meeting on Tuesday that he attended though it was initiated by a former president, Leonid M. Kravchuk.
“He spit in the face of America, E.U. countries and 46 million Ukrainians,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said in remarks from the stage at Independence Square, where the sound system was still functioning on Wednesday. “We won’t forgive this.”
Mr. Yanukovich invited religious and cultural figures and the leaders of political parties to the planned talks. “Personally, I am willing to participate in this round table,” he said, according to a statement posted on his official website. “For the sake of compromise I urge the opposition not to give up and not to walk on the path of confrontation.”
Those officials were likely left wondering if they had miscalculated in urging leaders of the protests to negotiate with Mr. Yanukovich and in their own efforts to do so. The crackdown by the authorities came after a three-and-a-half-hour meeting between Mr. Yanukovich and Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
Mr. Yanukovich also promised not to use force against the protesters.
The diplomatic consequences became apparent almost immediately.
In Independence Square, protesters spent the day rebuilding the barricades torn down by the authorities overnight. By early afternoon, a welder joined rebars into a lattice filled with nylon bags of snow; the heap was then covered with more snow, then protesters poured water on top to create a patina of ice and a slick structure that could not be dismantled with winches as happened the night before.
“I was among you,” Ms. Ashton said in a statement on Wednesday morning. “The authorities did not need to act under the cover of night.”
By evening, they stood on top of their new barrier, waving Ukrainian flags. “Our colleagues in the Interior Ministry took it apart easily yesterday so we’re building it differently,” said one young man, heaving bags of snow onto the pile.
And in unusually strong language, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed the United States’ “disgust” with the authorities’ decision to use force. “This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy,” he said in a statement.
He added: “As church bells ring tonight amidst the smoke in the streets of Kiev, the United States stands with the people of Ukraine. They deserve better.”
Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who was in Kiev as the police action unfolded, visited Independence Square on Wednesday morning to hand out bread to demonstrators and to Interior Ministry police officers who spent the night on the street before heading to a meeting with Mr. Yanukovich.
After the meeting, Ms. Nuland condemned the police action but said the United States had conveyed to Mr. Yanukovich that it would still be possible conclude a free-trade pact with the European Union and negotiate a loan from the International Monetary Fund.
“I made it absolutely clear to him that what happened last night, what has been happening in security terms here, is absolutely impermissible in a European state, in a democratic state,” she said. “But we also made clear that we believe there is a way out for Ukraine, that it is still possible to save Ukraine’s European future.”
Only hours after the Western diplomats arrived on Tuesday for meetings with the president in an effort to defuse both the country’s slide into political chaos and a deepening financial crisis, thousands of riot police officers and security troops fanned across Kiev, putting the Ukrainian capital in a virtual lockdown.
Officers descending a slope past the Hotel Ukraina punched an opening through a barricade that protesters had heavily reinforced. Officers later winched a rope to the barrier and ripped it down entirely. Ice and slush on the streets added to the unfolding confusion as some officers slid into a confrontation with demonstrators, who chanted “Peaceful Protest! Peaceful Protest!”
There were fights and shoving matches as officers pushed into the plaza from virtually all sides, taking up positions and blocking the crowd’s movements with interlocking shields. At least one of the tents or another makeshift structure erected by demonstrators caught fire. Officers in helmets pushed through the crowds with shields but did not use the truncheons hanging at their sides.
As the security forces spread throughout the square, a large crowd of protesters brandishing sticks, clubs, metal rods and anything else they could find massed in front of the Trade Unions building, which leaders of the demonstration had turned into the headquarters of what they call the National Resistance.
People first took to the streets nearly three weeks ago, in anger over Mr. Yanukovich’s sudden decision to scuttle far-reaching political and free-trade agreements with the European Union that had been in the works for more than a year and that he had promised to sign.
The storming of the plaza was especially surprising because Tuesday had largely been a day of consultations and discussions among senior officials. The talks with Western diplomats had focused heavily on Ukraine’s acute financial troubles; a deepening cash crunch could leave the country broke within months.
Along with Ms. Ashton, Ms. Nuland returned to Kiev after making a brief visit here last week and then traveling elsewhere in the region, including to Russia, where she urged senior officials to help resolve the crisis in Ukraine.
Mr. Yanukovich also met with the three former presidents of Ukraine, to begin what the government described as a process of “round table” discussions to resolve the crisis.
By 3 a.m. Wednesday, witnesses said that the police had largely divided the crowd into sectors and had cleared a substantial portion of the plaza. They then stood in formation but did not appear to be making arrests.
At one point, protesters in construction hats, bicycle helmets and other protective gear rushed toward the officers, with blows being landed by both sides. Burning barrels tipped over, sending up plumes of smoke.
Roman Bakus, 30, had been standing in front of a long line of police officers in the embattled plaza and was knocked down by their advance.
“Of course we are afraid, but we are all together,” said Mr. Bakus, who was wearing a bicycle helmet. “Of course we could lose, but we will achieve something anyway. We’ll stay here until the end. If we lose today, three times as many people will come out tomorrow.”
At that, the crowd began singing the Ukrainian national anthem, and Mr. Bakus and others took off their helmets in salute.
At least one man was on the ground, apparently unconscious. He was carried off by volunteer medics who came running with a stretcher. Throughout the occupation, protesters had established first aid stations, canteens, volunteer security forces and cleaning crews.
They listened to speeches, danced to musical performances and gathered around fires to keep warm.
Late on Tuesday night there were a series of intermittent blackouts — unusual for Kiev — that apparently foreshadowed the arrival of the riot police.
Even before that, the continuing civic uprising had begun to take a toll on Ukraine’s already imperiled economy. Borrowing costs for Ukraine rose to their highest level in years on Tuesday and the central bank was forced to intervene to support the currency as investors fled from a country with its government under siege, no budget in place for next year and an increasingly acute need for a rescue package of as much as $18 billion.
Ukraine remains caught in a tug of war between Europe and Russia, which are vying for political sway over the country’s future. Both are both deeply wary of putting up cash, however, given the uncertain political situation and Mr. Yanukovich’s long track record of playing East against West, most recently with his move on the accords.
In rejecting the accords, Mr. Yanukovich said he could not accept conditions of an accompanying rescue package from the International Monetary Fund. He was also under heavy pressure from the Kremlin, which threatened draconian trade sanctions if Ukraine signed the trade pact with Europe. If Mr. Yanukovich thought he was making a clever maneuver, stringing along the European Union while he extracted a better deal from Russia, the plan exploded when protesters rushed into the streets.
“Yanukovich was playing a game where he thought he could maneuver the E.U. and Russia to his benefit,” said Stephen Sestanovich, a Russia expert and a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. “The whole idea was to get both sides to pay.”
Instead, he now has no deal with anyone. Russia has indicated some willingness to help, potentially with a combination of lower gas prices, the refinancing of existing debt and, perhaps, a small bridge loan, but not until the political turmoil has been resolved.
A Russian deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, said in New York on Tuesday that Mr. Yanukovich and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would meet again in a week.
The possibility that Ukraine could be tipped back into Russia’s orbit has set Western officials scrambling, in part to put together a more palatable aid package that perhaps would persuade Mr. Yanukovich to reconsider signing the accords.
Opposition leaders here said that they had received assurances in a meeting with European ambassadors that Western financial assistance was still available, and could serve as an alternative to a Russian bailout, though the talks remain preliminary. But there was no indication that the I.M.F. was softening its loan terms.
Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting from Washington, Oksana Lyachynska from Kiev, and Richard Berry from Paris.
Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting from Washington, Oksana Lyachynska from Kiev, and Richard Berry from Paris.
