Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Is Euromaidan Losing Steam?

The pro-EU protest movement in Ukraine on Sunday appeared to lose its momentum after the government's bailout deal with Russia, as the latest rally in Kiev drew far fewer demonstrators.

Some 40,000 showed up at Independence Square for the fifth in a series of Sunday protests against the U-turn by the government in November, when it decided not to sign the Association Agreement for closer ties with the European Union under Kremlin pressure.

All the previous rallies had attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters, making the turnout at the latest rally the lowest since the Sunday protests began on November 24, AFP correspondents said.

The protest movement has so far been at a loss as to how to respond to a controversial deal clinched by President Viktor Yanukovych in Moscow this week for billions of dollars in Russian help to bail out Ukraine's ailing economy.

One of the chief opposition leaders, the world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, told those gathered Sunday that the protests would continue.

"We are going to fight and we are not going to go anywhere from here," he said.

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