Wednesday, February 26 update from a palJust found out that Berkut have now been abolished – very pleased; I was giving out ‘abolish Berkut’ leaflets yesterday.
The remaining Maidan ‘Self-Defence Units’ have now taken on new roles – guarding public buildings, directing traffic and acting as tour guides in the Independence Square area.
FROM MY PAL IN KYIV
5pm – Confused picture, big danger is government says it is introducing big crackdown on ‘extremist terrorists’.
On the other hand Maidan looks very hard to dislodge without an actual shooting war – today they took over a load more public buildings and more people have settled permanently on Maidan.
They might well end up calling this the Christmas Tree Revolution.
Until early last Saturday morning, it looked as though the pro-EU campaigning was about to fizzle out. That was when the paramilitary police – the dreaded Berkut – attacked people in Independence Square – horrifying millions across Ukraine and plunging the nation into crisis.
Lame excuses were made that the most important square in the country needed to be cleared so the Christmas tree preparations could be completed.
Crikey! Come to Ukraine on holiday and a national crisis emerges. Am in Dnipropetrovsk today but head to Kyiv tomorrow to watch events unfold, and report on them.
I’ve seen small protests in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk in the last week, and been told, though can’t confirm, protests here in DP and Lugansk were attacked.
Students at a university class I taught at last Monday in Lugansk seemed unconcerned by events the previous weekend.
