Ukraine’s Euromaidan is the political equivalent of Glastonbury.
Kyiv’s Independence Square is awash with tents, oil drum fires, soup tureens boiling borscht.
There’s a powerful smell of sausages. There’s never a moment’s silence from the stage, someone is always giving a speech.
That’s mixed up with musical interludes.
Quiet day on the barricades so far.
People mill around Independence Square, ferrying wood for fires, feeding each other, praying.
Protesters are calling for Ukrainians to join in the March for a Million on Sunday – Ukraine has a population of about 45 million.
They might well end up calling this the Christmas Tree Revolution.
Until early last Saturday morning, it looked as though the pro-EU campaigning was about to fizzle out. That was when the paramilitary police – the dreaded Berkut – attacked people in Independence Square – horrifying millions across Ukraine and plunging the nation into crisis.
Lame excuses were made that the most important square in the country needed to be cleared so the Christmas tree preparations could be completed.
Different tack today – uploading photos with captions. Latest photos will be at bottom of page.
Vitali Klitchko speaking last night in Independence Square. Now being widely touted as the next President.
Underneath the six ornate chandeliers in the City Hall’s main chamber, hundreds of people sleep, dine, chatter, embrace, plot and even sing.
Welcome to the ‘revolution’.
9pm Vitali Klitchko finishes speaking to a crowd of about 10,000. A quiet evening. At Parliament, more buses, all empty, are moved into the government- controlled area.
2.30pm Back at the Parliament. In their fenced off compound the Party of Regions faithful listen to a speaker. On the other side of railings they are stared at, like animals in a zoo, by opposition supporters.
There are jeers and laughs from outside the railings at the claims from the speaker on the podium. A man holds a two-sided square card about ten inches square, in a cleft stick above his head.
On one side is a picture of Yanukovych with the word ‘Tsar’, written on it. He flips the card to show Prime Minister Azarov with the wordl ‘Podilka’ on it (I don’t know what that means).
9pm Rock bands play on Maidan square. People head home.
In the city hall’s main chamber, which has been commandeered by opposition parties, food is served and hundreds of people from the west of Ukraine are sleeping on the floor.
2.20pm Independence Square (Maidan) calm. Thousands of people milling around. No police visible.
Crikey! Come to Ukraine on holiday and a national crisis emerges. Am in Dnipropetrovsk today but head to Kyiv tomorrow to watch events unfold, and report on them.
I’ve seen small protests in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk in the last week, and been told, though can’t confirm, protests here in DP and Lugansk were attacked.
Students at a university class I taught at last Monday in Lugansk seemed unconcerned by events the previous weekend.
On the face of it, it’s a mystery why the fifth largest city in Ukraine has the best football team in Eastern Europe.
But money talks. And Shakhtar owner Rinat Akhmetov has plenty of it.
Speak to locals and they’ll tell you he already runs the country by virtue of it – he has no need to be in Parliament as that’s a waste of valuable time.
Continue reading Basque-busters – Shakhtar Donetsk 4 Real Sociedad 0
Slagheap City, it has to be said, hides its charms well.
Nearly a million people now live in Donetsk, which was set up by Welshman John Hughes after he came out here in 1869. In effect he sparked an industrial revolution in this part of eastern Ukraine.
The legacy of his efforts is staggering to behold when you travel out to the huge metallurgical plant in the south of the city.
Les Bleus were bleu-dy awful and this must rank as Ukraine’s greatest day in football – the moment the champion chokers beat a world power convincingly.
Miles from Nowhere 