Police deployed roughly around Ukraine’s capital closed way several major avenues for our demonstrations, as the Ukrainian within the, Volodymyr Zelenskiy , urged participants most critical violence. He also given notice that images from the protests could be used by Russian area media to discredit Ukraine.
Many individuals have joined a drive through Kyiv led easily right groups and nationalist parties to protest up against changes to a peace plan for east Ukraine that they have known as “capitulation” to Russia.
Protesters banged snare drums, carried the flags of Ukraine plus political parties, and chanted slogans such as “Glory the particular nation, no to capitulation! ” Some protesters delivered bouquets of flowers men and women planned to lay found on military memorials.
The protests are connected with a backlash against Zelenskiy’s policies on the war to bar Russian-backed separatists in far east Ukraine. This month, the within the approved a plan that would allow for elections in separatist-held Ukraine and then grant special position to the region on the precondition the vote was perceived as free and fair.
Zelenskiy maintains a seventy percent approval rating but late polling showed a majority of Ukrainians opposed giving special popularity to the regions held near separatists. During a 14-hour press conference last week, Zelenskiy wanted to say ending the war was your most important mission of the woman presidency and that he would have to speak to Vladimir Putin to achieve that goal.
Ukrainian servicemen from volunteer units take part in the march. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA
But his statements have sparked anger among former fighters and have been criticised by members of the opposition. One veteran on Monday called it a “betrayal”. Yevhen Pylypenko, one of several men wearing fatigues on their way to a protest near a statue of the 19th-century Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko, said the plan was a step towards “forgiving the people who fought against us. I think that’s unforgivable.”
The former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has also opposed the plan, which would amend the stalled Minsk agreement negotiated under his presidency.
“We will never agree to that,” Poroshenko, now the leader of the European Solidarity party, said last week. “We feel solidarity with the present actions and calls heard from among veterans and we will not allow the ruin of the Ukrainian state.”
Zelenskiy has sought a compromise with nationalist groups, and reportedly met last week with the leaders of veterans’ organisations, as well as prominent far-right leaders.
Many are controversial. On Sunday night, the Ukrainian prime minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, spoke at a rally in support of veterans reportedly organised by Andriy Medvedko, a prominent member of the radical nationalist organisation S14. Sokyra Peruna, a white-nationalist metal band whose supporters have made Nazi salutes at their concerts, also played at the bar where the event was held.
Honcharuk on Monday confirmed he spoke at the event to support veterans but said he was not familiar with the band, saying he did not endorse any “hate-filled ideology – neither Nazism, nor fascism, nor communism”.
