Ukrainas protestētājs. Foto: AFP/LETA
18.-19.februāra notikumu hronika Kijevā*
The 18th of February should have been the key day for a bloodless resolution to the Ukrainian crisis. Instead the Ukrainian government escalated violence in an unprecedented way. The upper echelon bureaucrats not only ignored the voices of its people, as they have done in the past, but also decided to punish them for their desire to be free. As a compromise between the protesters and the government, parliament was to vote on the revival of a 2004 version of the constitution. This would have reduced Vicktor Yanukovich's powers to what they were when he was elected in 2010. This quick fix constitutional reform was prepared by the opposition factions. However, the Speaker of Parliament, Volodimir Rybak, refused to bring it to a vote. The conference in the speaker's offices ended in impasse. Some members of parliament belonging to the Party of Regions departed for discussions in their committees while others simply fled.
