KIEV, November 22 (RIA Novosti) – Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Kiev hours after the announcement that Ukraine had suspended a landmark trade deal with the EU and opted instead for stronger ties with Russia, local media said Friday.
Some 1,500 protesters came at midnight to the capital's Independence Square, the scene of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, to show their opposition to Kiev’s decision to block the EU deal that would have weakened the former Soviet state’s ties with neighboring Russia.
Opposition politicians, including Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the leader of the Fatherland parliamentary faction, and Vitaliy Klitschko, who heads the Udar party, attended the event. They called for further mass demonstrations on November 24.
Similar protests were held in other Ukrainian cities, including Donetsk, Kharkiv, Uzhhorod and Lviv.
Ukraine’s government announced Thursday it was halting plans to sign association agreements and free trade deals with the EU at a two-day summit in Vilnius starting November 28, citing a need to consolidate economic ties with Russia and members of the nascent Moscow-led Customs Union trade bloc.
Earlier in the day, Ukraine’s parliament rejected draft laws aimed at allowing jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to seek medical treatment abroad, which EU officials had stipulated as a condition for the agreements with Kiev to go ahead.
The United States expressed disappointment with Ukraine’s decision. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, welcomed the move by its “close partner Ukraine” to increase cooperation with Russia.
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