KIEV, December 4 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s ruling party has called for its supporters to come out onto the streets in defense of government buildings as the political stand-off in the former Soviet nation continued Wednesday.
President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions said in a statement released late Tuesday that it was mobilizing its backers to ensure the continued work of the government.
“Kiev is not the capital of the opposition, it is the capital of our whole country,” the party said.
The statement appears to signal unwillingness by the government to compromise with an increasingly emboldened protest movement that was sparked last month by the Cabinet’s decision to back away from a landmark trade and political pact with the European Union.
The Ukrainian capital and other cities across the country have been convulsed in recent days by protesters staging large rallies and mounting cordons around key government buildings.
While demonstrations were initially provoked by the reversal of course on the EU deals, protests are increasingly focused on calls for the ouster of the president and his government.
The Party of the Regions, the largest faction in Ukraine’s parliament, appealed to law enforcement officials for what it called an “objective legal evaluation” of the occupation of public buildings by protesters.
A symbolically important square in central Kiev is currently occupied by government opponents, who took over City Hall as an organizational base after storming it Sunday.
Barricades and supplies of water and concrete powder have been put in place to ensure against a police attempt to retake the building, the New York Times said in a report Tuesday.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said earlier this week that the events of the past few days bore all the hallmarks of a coup. He warned that the government had sufficient force at its disposal to restore order.
Demonstrations in Kiev were largely peaceful until early Saturday, when police staged used force to clear the capital’s Independence Square, the focal point of the Orange Revolution of 2004-2005.
A day later, a mob attempted to storm the capital’s presidential administration building. Hundreds of people were injured in the clashes, during which police used baton charges and stun grenades to break up the crowd.
Nine people suspected of organizing mass disturbances during the weekend’s violence have been placed under arrest for two months, according to prosecutors, the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency reported Wednesday.
