Ukraine against Yanukovych peaceful protest tents dismantled

OPORA reports that as in other cities, a campaigning tent was erected in Chyhyryn  near the Khmelnytski Estate with activists from the United Opposition collecting signatures in support of a nationwide campaign “Ukraine against Yanukovych”. According to the head of the Chyhyryn Branch of the Batkivshchyna Party, Valeria Nevhodenko, they had submitted the relevant notification to the city authorities, yet were approached by the police and Deputy Mayor who claimed that they needed some kind of separate permit. The police threatened to take the tent away if the activists did not remove it themselves. They removed it, but a little later put it up again.

According to the head of the regional election headquarters of the United Opposition, Anatoly Bondarenko, “it has become a “tradition” in the Cherkasy region for the authorities to disperse peaceful protests, ban our protests through the courts, intimidate United Opposition activists, threaten problems at work not just for them, but for their children, relatives, friends. “  He goes on to warn that such methods will not work, but will rather make resistance stronger.