Angry about the government's U-turn away from integration with Europe, Ukraine is seeing its biggest demonstrations since the Orange Revolution nine years ago.
On Monday protesters took over some government offices and -- braving cold weather while waving flags and chanting against the government -- converged on Kiev's Independence Square and surrounding streets, setting up tents and blocking traffic, in response to an opposition call for a nationwide strike over Yanukovich's switch toward Russia.
Ukrainian boxer Vitaly Klitschko, one of the three leaders of the opposition party, told the crowd: "I alone cannot do a thing. The three of us together won't be able to make a difference. But when we are 10, 20, 30, a hundred, 100,000, a million, they (the government) won't be able to do anything."
On Monday evening, Yanukovich finally spoke, telling reporters that he supports a peaceful resolution to the "questions brought on by our citizens."
But he had a stern warning for his opposition.
"As for the politicians participating in this, I consider any radicalization of the political process will only have negative consequences," he said. "And using civil rallies with the aim of radicalization is always a mistake and someone must always carry political responsibility."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, dismissed the protests Monday, saying they are unrelated to Ukraine's turn away from the European Union. He called them reminiscent of a "pogrom" rather than a revolution and an effort by the opposition to destabilize the government, according to Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti.
"These actions are, in my opinion, prepared not in view of current events, but for the 2015 election campaign," Putin said.
culled from CNN
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