Battle for Ukraine

THUGS and thieves always prefer to act in the early hours of the morning. So did Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s president. Less than 24 hours after he ruined the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius and ditched the Association Agreement with Europe, he vividly demonstrated his preferred alternative. In the small hours of Saturday morning he sent in special troops to beat up the few hundred students and activists who stood vigil for Ukraine’s European future. Armed with truncheons and tear gas, the police pummelled the peaceful demonstration, smashing heads and kicking people on the ground. Never in its 22 years as an independent country has Ukraine seen such violence. It was a cowardly and treacherous act by a government that behaved like an occupying force in its own capital. “Tonight Yankovych turned into Alexander Lukashenka [Belarus's hardline president],” wrote Mustafa Nayyem, a Ukrainian journalist and blogger who mobilised the civil protest a week ago. A Continue reading