Hundreds of anti-government protesters in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, have called on the country’s Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko to resign.
On Monday, the demonstrators called for the minister’s resignation over the use of force by police officers during protests held last November.
According to the Ukrainian National News agency, UKRINFORM, the protesters supporting opposition leader Vitali Klitschko blocked the entrances to the Interior Ministry.
The opposition leader warned that his Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR) would continue to block the parliament if Zakharchenko did not step down from power.
“We also propose to set up a temporary commission to investigate all cases of illegal use of force,” Klitschko said.
On January 12, as many as 50,000 protesters gathered in Kiev a day after the country’s former interior minister and opposition leader Yuriy Lutsenko was injured in clashes.
Ukraine has been witnessing anti-government protests since President Victor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union at the third Eastern Partnership Summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on November 29, 2013, in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Instead, Kiev and Moscow reached a strategic economic and trade deal last December, which provides Ukraine with significant discounts on imported Russian gas and billions of dollars in credit.
SZH/SS
Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/01/13/345403/ukraine-minister-urged-to-step-down/
Views: 0