In Kyiv, no mood for compromise

KYIV, Ukraine — Ivan Moroz says he’s always considered himself a peaceful man, but there’s only so much he can take.

After the death of at least two protesters amid violent clashes with police in Kyiv this week — on top of widespread reports of police abuse against activists — the soft-spoken 40-year-old construction worker says he left his two children at home in western Ukraine to man the barricades in the capital.

And he’s not leaving anytime soon.

“If I could, I’d hire hit men to take care of [President Viktor] Yanukovych,” he says.

Similar sentiments are growing among protesters here since their two-month-long demonstrations erupted into unprecedented violence last week, initially fueled by the passage of a sweeping anti-protest law.

More recently, the shooting deaths of two protesters by police and the apparent abduction and murder of another have consolidated the popular rage and forged a stronger resolve, increasingly radicalizing even once moderate protesters.

Little surprise, then, that after Yanukovych announced a batch of planned concessions on Friday — including reshuffling his government — many here said they’d settle for nothing less than a wholesale change of power.

“When two gentlemen come together, that’s a compromise,” said Petro Turchyn, a 72-year-old pensioner from Kyiv. “But if it’s a criminal versus normal people, what kind of compromise is that?”

Live streaming video of Hruschevsky Street by Ustream

Ukraine’s worst political crisis in decades has been exacerbated by an apparent lack of leadership among the country’s three main opposition parties, whose bosses have attempted to harness the public anger to force President Yanukovych to the negotiating table.

That’s only partially worked.

Although boxing champion-turned-politician Vitali Klitschko has emerged as the most visible opposition figure, his attempts to lead the charge in extracting concessions from the ruling regime haven’t played well with protesters who see little hope in negotiations.

Nevertheless, he’s slammed Yanukovych’s offer to reshuffle the government as a half-hearted measure.

“Two weeks ago, you could have satisfied people with the resignation of the government,” he said Friday, the Interfax news agency reported. “Today, people are demanding the president’s resignation.”

News of Yanukovych’s apparent concessions — which also include the potential amendment of the anti-protest law his ruling Party of Regions recently forced through parliament — made little impact in downtown Kyiv, where a fragile truce between police and protesters appeared to be unwinding around midnight amid reignited barricade fires and a volley of firebombs.

Hrushevsky Street, the main road to several major government buildings and the site of this week’s clashes, resembled an urban war zone on Friday, coated in sheets of ice and gripped by thick smoke from smoldering fires.

The charred skeletons of police vans set aflame during the heat of the clashes served as defense barriers separating protesters from rows of police. Piles of debris and burnt tires littered the ground, their uncoiled wires tripping protesters as they walked by.

More from GlobalPost: Watch this 360-degree video from the epicenter of the clashes in Kyiv

While the standoff has remained largely nonviolent since the clashes ended, fears linger among some observers that the resistance here is being spearheaded by far-right groups such as Right Sector, which reportedly played a key role in this week’s violence.

The evidence is apparent on Hrushevsky Street, where the front lines are manned by masked young men armed with makeshift shields, clubs, baseball bats and other blunt weaponry. They are mostly silent — save for occasional chants of “Glory to Ukraine!” and “Away with the bandits!” — and often lurk menacingly near the front lines.

In a hidden corner near the barricades, protesters appeared to be preparing Molotov cocktails, the weapon of choice during the clashes.

But even moderate protesters who say they condemn open violence support those who clashed with police, defending their actions against what they characterize as brute police force.

Throwing Molotov cocktails “isn’t the same as snipers shooting at you from rooftops,” says Natalia, a 47-year-old activist from Kyiv who declined to give her last name.

Images of the victims, as well as makeshift memorials, have appeared throughout downtown Kyiv, apparent reminders of the cause.

“They are heroes to us,” Natalia says.

More from GlobalPost: 9 gritty photos of life as a Kyiv protester

The unrest has spread to Ukraine’s provinces, where at least five regional administrations have fallen under the control of anti-government protesters, according to local media reports. Several others are under threat of being seized.

Although Moroz, the construction worker from western Ukraine, holds out hope that the protests will lead to meaningful change, compromise with the authorities doesn’t appear to be on his — or many others’ — agenda.

“I’ve lived to see the day when there are no courts, no rights, and when our children are being killed,” he says. “What else can I do?”