Euromaidan demonstrators, receiveing arrests and beatings, were forcefully dispersed by the police acting together with “titushkas” in four Districts of Ukraine.
At the same time, in 10 regions the Regional Administrations (RA) are under the protesters’ control – Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Lutsk, Cehrnivtsi, Ternopil, Khmelnytskiy, Rivne, Vinnytsya, Zhytomyr, and Poltava Districts.
RA’s in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, and Kherson Districts were blocked and attempts to seize were made. The Sumy and Cherkasy Districts were taken over for a short time.
Блокування і спроби штурму за цей час відбулися уДніпропетровській, Запорізькій, Чернігівській і Херсонській ОДА.Сумську і Черкаську ОДА мітингувальникам вдавалося на нетривалий час зайняти.
Protests ensue in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Luhansk Districts.
- In the north-eastern city of Sumy, protesters occupied the city’s council building and an MP for the opposition Fatherland party has assumed the leadership of the council, reports Unian news agency. Around 2:30 AM the police circled the protesters’ tents and forcefully cleared the RA building. “The police brutally, without any warning, cleared the Sumy Council. They were hitting with sticks, packed up people in paddies, chased them across the square… How many are arrested is unknown, the police does not answer questions, doesn’t show documents,” – writes activist Yevhan Polozhiy.
- Several thousand protesters tried to storm the state regional administration building in south-eastern Zaporizhzhia, with police using tear gas and smoke grenades against the crowd and eventually dispersing them, reports said.
- Some 2,000 people gathered for a people’s assembly in Cherkasy, south-east of Kyiv, said Unian. More than 40 people were reportedly detained there after a protest. As Serhiy Kozlenko reports on FB: “Automaidan activists and journalists were beaten up. When Automaidan activists came to the city, they stopped near the Regional State Administration building and set up a demonstration where there were about 100 souls of Automaidan activists and over one hundred Cherkasy residents”. Mykola Lyahovych on FB reports that as soon as the Automaidan activists arrived titushkas lobbed several Molotov cocktails at the Regional State Administration building. Kozlenko: “About 300 Berkut soldiers, riot police, and ordinary Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVS) patrols ran out of the building. Fights broke out. People were mercilessly beaten and taken away. Very many of the injured were taken away by ambulance. They beat up Automaidan cars and ripped up their tires. We know that one Automaidan car managed to escape. One Berkut soldier tried to stop it himself, but he was thrown back. He was seriously injured, and an ambulance also took him away. Those arrested have been taken to the Sosnivs’kyi District Department of the Ukrainian MVS. Thee is not an exact count of all those arrested, but there were over 50 of them. People were packed away in some paddy wagons. When one of them let people out, they counted 15 souls. Journalists were injured during the fighting. We know that the car for Channel Five was damanged and that a journalist from the TV channel Inter was seriously beaten up. A journalist from the local TV channel Vikka was also beaten, and they broke up his equipment when he tried to defend the correspondent from Inter and help him out”.
- Activists in Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, set up barricades outside a regional administration building which they attempted to storm on Saturday, Unian reported
- In Dnipropetrovsk thousands of residents gathered today near the Regional Administration (RA). RA was surrounded. 10 officers of the militia stood near the entrance to the RA. People tried to get into the building. The oppositionists went to the LSA for negotiations. About 200-250 guys of athletic constitution (“titushki”) also were there, they were protected by the militia. “Titushki” barricaded themselves in the building of the RA. The activists chanted “Titushki, go away from the RA!”. People demanded to initiate criminal proceedings. According to the information of the Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 4 persons were injured (3 officers of the militia and 1 activist) and 7 activists were arrested as a result of the conflicts near the RA in Dnipropetrovsk. Hundreds of titushki, being protected by the security of the RA, threw stones, sticks and smoke grenades into the protesters and also sprayed tear gas into them. In response to such action activists threw the pieces of ice. Ultras, football funs of football club Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk), got gunshot wounds. A group of titushki started shooting on sight.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMIx2IhytX0
- Protesters in Odesa, to the south, also gathered at the regional office.
People were singing the national anthem of Ukraine and chanting “Odesa, stand up!”, “Down with the gang!”, “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes!”,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74E8Ftqh-yM - In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, a group of young men armed with baseball bats attacked anti-government protesters who had gathered for a rally, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
Sources: www.pravda.com.ua, censor.net, bbc.co.uk
