Chornobyl cleanup workers, Afghan veterans rallying outside cabinet building

Chornobyl cleanup participants and Afghan war veterans are rallying outside the building of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv on Tuesday.

The Chornobyl cleanup workers are demanding that all the payments due to be paid to them under court rulings be made.

The rally participants are also demanding the withdrawal of the bill on government guarantees of the execution of court decisions, the provision of additional funds in the budget assigned for social payments to the poor and disabled people, and the declaration of a moratorium on any amendments to relevant legislation.

"Don't make Chornobyl invalids die under the walls of the Verkhovna Rada and the cabinet. Don't drive us to extremes, so that our social and economic demands should grow into political ones," the protesters' said in statement read out by one of their leaders.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, there are about 500 protesters outside the cabinet bulding. They are holding the flags of non-governmental organization "No One Except Us," the Chornobyl Union of Ukraine and Oleh Liashko's Radical Party.