Ukrainian police use tear gas against pro-EU integration protesters

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ukraine’s riot police used tear gas and batons against pro-European integration protesters when some of them tried to break through a police cordon to the central entrance of the Cabinet’s building in downtown Kiev Sunday, November 24, according to RIA Novosti.

Kiev police confirmed the use of tear gas but said they used it selectively against those protesters who also used tear gas or threw smoke bombs at them, Ukrainian media reported.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators backing EU integration and a separate group of protesters against it assembled in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday in reaction to the government’s decision earlier this week to suspend landmark agreements with Brussels and turn to Russia instead.

Police put the number of pro-EU protesters at about 22,000, the Unian news agency reported citing Kiev police. An opposition MP from the Fatherland parliamentary faction, Oleksandr Turchynov, said some 100,000 gathered on European Square.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said a riot policeman was injured when unknown assailants threw two stones from the crowd.

The Ukrainian government announced November 21 it was halting plans to sign long-discussed trade and association deals with the European Union, because of the damage it would do to trade with Russia. In an announcement that stunned Europe, it said it would seek closer cooperation with Russia and the Moscow-led Customs Union that also comprises Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The EU blamed unprecedented Russian pressure on Kiev for the Ukrainian decision, but Moscow denied any strong-arm tactics.

Earlier this year, Moscow suspended imports of some Ukrainian goods and warned that preferential trade agreements with Ukraine would end if it signed the EU deals.

Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko called on protesters Sunday to stay in the center of Kiev until the EU summit in Vilnius, due November 28-29.

Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday rejected draft laws aimed at allowing Tymoshenko to seek medical treatment abroad, which EU officials had stipulated as a condition for the agreements with Kiev to go ahead.

Meanwhile, several thousand people gathered for a rally in the city of Simferopol in Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula to support Ukraine’s relations with Russia, RIA Novosti reported.