17:06 20.10.2017

Kyiv rally organizers want to destabilize situation in Ukraine

2 min read

The chief organizers of protest actions near the Verkhovna Rada building in central Kyiv aimed to destabilize the situation in Ukraine and their demands were only a cover, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

"The chief organizers demonstrated that their formal demands were only a smoke screen. Their real plan of action is the destabilization of the situation in Ukraine," Poroshenko said during a visit to the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service's mobile border guard unit in Kyiv on Friday.

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili initiated the action near the Verkhovna Rada building.

The rally participants made formal demands which fully coincide with presidential initiatives, both in terms of anti-corruption trials and parliamentary immunity.

Thanks to law enforcement officials' effective actions, attempts to buy weapons were averted and caches containing weapons and explosives were found, Poroshenko said. The president said the rally organizers were not seeking changes, "they needed blood."

The president said law enforcement agencies had done everything to keep the rally peaceful, had not given in to provocations and had prevented bloodshed.

Ukraine has survived many attempts to destabilize its internal situation, he said. "I am stating: we have handled it and we will handle it this time," Poroshenko said.

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