Over 1,000 protesters led by the Ukrainian army’s Donbass Battalion fighters gathered for a rally in central Kiev on Sunday. The demonstrators are demanding that President Petro Poroshenko end the ceasefire and impose martial law.
The Sunday rally was organized by Donbass Battalion Commander
Semyon Semenchenko, who told the pro-Kiev protesters on his
Facebook page to gather near the presidential administration
building. Some Azov Battalion fighters also reportedly took part
in the demonstration.
A Donbass Battalion representative read out a petition to
President Poroshenko on behalf of Ukrainians, with a demand to
"stop the truce, impose a martial law in the country, provide
the military with necessary armaments and measures to destroy
terrorists and request the EU and the USA to impose a third round
of sanctions against Russia."
Following the demonstration, the protesters marched to the
infamous Maidan (Independence Square), the traditional place for
political rallies and the symbolic location of the recent armed
coup against President Yanukovich's government.
The protesters held a “people’s assembly,” during which
they warned Poroshenko that “this Sunday campaign may be the last
peaceful one,” Itar-Tass reported.
The demonstrators called on the newly-elected president to
“listen to the real holder of power – the Ukrainian
people.”
They added that if the president didn't “hear [their]
demands,” they would “consider him a traitor of the
country” and “he will share the same fate as [ousted
President Viktor] Yanukovich.”
Talking to the gathered demonstrators, Semenchenko said that the
Ukrainian military units fighting in the east are in a dire
situation, as the money allocated by the government does not
reach the army.
"The Finance Ministry still allocates money to support
businesses that are in separatists’ control,” he said,
referring to anti-government protesters in the eastern part of
the country. “There are many traitors in governmental
agencies.”
“Europe won’t help us,” he shouted to the crowd. “We
should establish order ourselves. We can stop the aggressors’
invasion.”
A protest for peace
At the same time, in the eastern part of the country, residents
of the city of Lugansk gathered to rally for peace, urging the
Kiev authorities to “stop military actions and the
crackdown” against Ukrainian civilians.
Authorities of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic made
speeches in front of several hundred people.
Last week, Poroshenko presented a peace plan for the resolution
of the conflict which outlined 15 steps – including a unilateral
ceasefire on the part of Kiev's military, which launched a
punitive operation in the country's southeast from June 20 to
June 27.
Read more: Ukraine president proclaims 7-day
ceasefire, rolls out peace plan
On Monday, Donetsk self-defense forces joined the ceasefire, and on Friday the truce was expended
until June 30 at 10 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT). Poroshenko
declared that after the ceasefire ends, those militiamen who
failed to lay down their weapons in eastern Ukraine “will be
destroyed.”
The Ukrainian army is set for “tough actions” after the
end of the truce, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov
reiterated on Friday.
However, there have been a number of reports concerning breaches
of ceasefire from both sides. In the latest incidents, Ukrainian
forces shelled residential parts of Slavyansk for nearly an hour
on Sunday, killing up to five people, the press service of the
self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said, as cited by
Itar-Tass. In another incident, shells were launched over the
Russia-Ukraine border into Russia on Saturday, with one severely
damaging a border crossing checkpoint in Rostov region.