A flag with an image of Yulia Tymoshenko is carried by protesters attending a rally to support EU integration in central Kiev yesterday. Photo: ReutersA flag with an image of Yulia Tymoshenko is carried by protesters attending a rally to support EU integration in central Kiev yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Thousands of protesters yesterday poured into Kiev’s Independence Square, the centre of Ukraine’s pro-West Orange Revolution, to demand that the government reverse course and sign a landmark agreement with the European Union.

The protests came hot on the heels after the country’s leaders stunned the nation by saying they were pulling out of the deal.

Braving freezing rain, thousands of people voiced their desire to move back towards the West and away from the Moscow-aligned course on which President Viktor Yanukovych was taking them.

It was the same day Ukraine marked the anniversary of the Orange Revolution that overturned a fraudulent presidential election result and brought a Western-leaning government to power.

Similar rallies were also held in other cities across Ukraine. The weekend rally was testing the strength of the opposition, and some say that a large showing could nudge Yanukovych back in the direction of the EU.

Tymoshenko ready to drop demands for release

“We must press these leaders to the end so that the agreement is signed next week,” said world heavyweight boxing champion and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko. “We must force them to fulfil what they have promised.”

One key EU demand in the free trade and political co-operation deal is the freeing of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, heroine of the Orange Revolution and Yanukovych’s arch-enemy.

Tymoshenko said she was ready to urge the EU to drop demands for her release if that would persuade Yanukoyvch to sign the agreement.

Tymoshenko, whose incarceration the West calls politically motivated, also urged Ukrainians to take to the streets to protest at the government’s decision.

“She is calling on everybody to come out and express your civic position on the squares of all the cities of the country,” her lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko said.

An EU spokeswoman said Yanukovych was still welcome to attend a scheduled summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, during which the two sides had been intending to sign the agreement.

“Our firm belief is that the future of Ukraine still lies in a strong relationship with the EU,” said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s top diplomat.

Ukraine’s decision to sus-pend preparations for the agreement was a big victory for Russia, which has worked aggressively to derail the deal and keep Ukraine in its orbit.

Prime minister Mykola Azarov sought to defend the decision in parliament yesterday, but was booed by opposition MPs, who chanted “Shame!” and threw stacks of papers at his ministers.

Azarov said Ukraine could not afford to lose trade with Russia and suggested the EU did not offer Ukraine any compensation.

He also complained that the conditions the International Monetary Fund has set for rescuing Ukraine’s struggling economy with a bail-out loan were impos-sible to fulfil.

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