KIEV, Ukraine – More than 100,000 people took to the streets of Kiev on Sunday, and thousands more rallied in other cities across Ukraine, to demand the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych, the largest outpouring of fury so far over his refusal to sign far-reaching political and trade accords with the European Union.
Speakers at the rally in Kiev said that protests — now in their 11th day — would continue until Yanukovych was toppled and new elections were called.
"I want the authorities to know that this is not a protest, this is a revolution!" said Yuri V. Lutsenko, a former interior minister and a leader of Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004, speaking to the huge crowd that thronged Independence Square in defiance of a court order. "Revolution!" the crowd roared back. "Revolution!"
With the public's anger deepened by the brutal force used by the police to disperse protesters in Kiev early Saturday, fissures have emerged at the highest levels of Yanukovych's administration, as well as in Parliament.
Serhiy Lyovochkin, the chief of the presidential administration staff, reportedly submitted his resignation Friday.
At least five lawmakers from Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which controls Parliament, spoke out forcefully against the violence by the police, and at least two, David Zhvania and Inna Bohoslovska, said they had quit the party.
Bohoslovska sent a text message to one of the protest leaders, Yegor Sobolev, telling him: "If I can be useful, I am here. Let's go to the rally."
Many Ukrainians view the agreements with Europe as crucial to a brighter economic and political future and to breaking free, once and for all, from the grip of Russia and Ukraine's Soviet past. The steady escalation of the protests — and the violent crackdown — has created a volatile situation.
