Tense calm in Kyiv after bloody battles

(Vatican Radio) A tense calm returned to the streets of a Ukraine's bruised capital Kyiv following two days of battles between riot police and pro-EU protesters, who demand the resignation of the president and government.

On Tuesday, the Kyiv Post newspaper's website quoted witnesses as saying three Orthodox priests were seen in what they called "a no-man's-land" between police and protesters.

For a moment, the witnesses said, "dead calm prevailed" as protesters stopped banging with sticks on barricades. Then the drumming resumed and church bells, apparently from nearby St. Michael's Cathedral, warned of danger.

Priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church have also been praying for protesters, despite warnings of the government that it would outlaw the denomination.

POLITICAL CRISIS

Questions remain when and if the large scale violence will continue as the political crisis has deepened in this former Soviet nation.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych has pledged to talk with the opposition, setting up a cross-party commission.

Yet talks have been overshadowed by an anti-protest law that increases fines and imposes jail terms for unauthorised street protests.

Observers say the measures reflect anti-opposition legislation passed in neighbouring Russia. Critics claim Yanukovych is following in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s footsteps and building a police state.

The European Union has urged Ukraine to revise the legislation, while the United States has called the laws “undemocratic.”

TRUE FREEDOM

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, who visited Kyiv recently, says the pro-EU protests on Kiyv's Maidan, or Independence Square, reflect a public desire for true freedom.

"The Euromaidan protesters – students, workers, pensioners, priests, entrepreneurs, business moguls and popstars -- are all calling for the same basic rights we hold dear here in the United States," she told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week.

"They want to live in a country where their government truly represents the wishes of the people and where they can safely exercise their rights without the fear of oppression," the senior diplomat added.

Thousands of Ukrainians have been protesting in Kyiv since last November after Yanukovych refused to sign a long-planned political and economic treaty with the EU. Instead he opted for closer ties with Russia, accepting a 15-billion dollar bailout package from Moscow.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report: