Protest actions in Kiev: downtown is cordoned off

Several streets in Kiev downtown have been cordoned off today as activists are planning to have protest actions in the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian media report that National Police and National Guard officers are on duty near subway stations, pedestrian tunnels, at crossroads and crowded areas.

Part of the government quarter is cordoned off. Several dozens of minivans with tinted glass, ambulances and firefighting vehicles are placed there.

Two rallies are being held in the central part of Kiev. About 400 people are at the Constitution Square near the Supreme Rada; and 1.500 more are in front of the Ukrainian National Bank.

Last night, leader of Batkivshchyna Party Yulia Timoshenko called Ukrainians to take to the streets for a termless protest action. According to her, President Petro Poroshenko and the National Bank are the stronghold of corruption, and the president is appointing his business partners for key positions in the government.

“The people only can redress the injustice and cut the authorities down to size. Tomorrow in the morning, people will take to the streets to express protest against hryvnia’s meltdown, growing tariffs, to call to bring back to them their bank deposits,” she said.

Timoshenko also added that the country’s leadership calls the protesters “Kremlin’s hand,” although the people are just fed up. “They use the war as disguise, but in fact they are robbing the country. Either the people will unite or the leadership will annihilate the Ukrainian nation and the state,” she stressed.

As EADaily reported earlier, the Kiev leadership is trying to accuse Moscow of staging rallies in Kiev.