PROTESTERS MARCH ON VERHOVNA RADA (Parliament)

This morning at around 9am, opposition protesters began departing Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti). The early morning crowd had been enlarged, in part, by a speech last night in which protesters were warned not to get lazy and allow their numbers to diminish. The moving wall of people immediately brought traffic to a stand still as it proceeded down Khreshchatyk Street. On the way, I saw an old woman carrying a shopping bag and wearing a bit of orange ribbon, standing defiantly in front of a line of cars so that they wouldn’t hinder the crowd.

The crowd turned at the end of Khreshchatyk Street, and continued up Hrushevskogo Street. Looking backward, I could see that the tail of the procession was being added to continuously. The additional marchers came from Maidan as well as from a steady stream of people coming out of the Metro.

As we proceeded up Hrushevskogo, we passed by a large line of protesters assembled at the top of a long hill running parallel to the street. Among them were about thirty drummers using steel drums to beat out their encouragement to the crowd.

Finally, the march brought me to the Verhovna Rada Ukrayiny (Supreme Council of Ukraine or Parliament). Many people stopped, creating a huge crowd while many people split off in different directions. Most notable, beside the size of the crowd, was the line of fifty or so protesters forming a long line to separate the standing crowd from the moving crowd. They wore green camouflaged uniforms with orange armbands. They were big, friendly and effective. This was my first sighting of real opposition muscle, besides the security guards at the camp on Khreshchatyk Street.

The police on duty appeared unarmed. Many were chatting with the crowd and there wasn’t a lot of tension between the crowd and the police. A spectacular display was made by a group of about four hundred protesters who marched into the area from the opposite direction. They were wearing identical fluorescent orange construction hats and bright orange plastic ponchos.

The crowd received a great reward for braving the freezing weather. The Rada voted to sack the government of Yanukovych, thereby further weakening his bid for the Presidency of Ukraine. This also raises the possibility of another candidate stepping into his shoes in the event of a revote.