First protests (16–17 September) The protests in Kyiv began on 16 September at 15:00, with the gathering of protesters from the troika and Our Ukraine Bloc on European Square. There, a rally took place including between 10,000 and 15,000 demonstrators (according to police) or 50,000 to 150,000 (according to the organisers). According to the
Korrespondent magazine, there were around 20,000 protesters, with the largest contingent coming from the Communist Party at 12,000 people. At the rally, a moment of silence was devoted to
Georgiy Gongadze, whose murder exactly two years prior had sparked the Cassette Scandal. After speeches were given at the rally by politicians, the protesters "adopted" an appeal to suspend Kuchma from the presidency. They began to move towards the
Presidential Office Building before tents began being erected at the intersection
Bankova and
Lyuteranska Streets. From 3:30 the next morning, the
Militsiya began surrounding the encampment and, by 4:00, began tearing down tents near the Presidential Office Building. By 6:09, the SPU's encampment had been totally demolished, according to SPU
People's Deputy Mykola Rudkovsky. After the destruction of the tent encampment, the opposition responded strongly; Moroz accused Kuchma and
Viktor Medvedchuk (chief of the
Presidential Administration) of establishing a "junta", Tymoshenko claimed that the Militsiya had "bulletproof vests, assault rifles, gas canisters, helmets with them," and Symonenko said, "this is fascism, it was like this in 1941." Additional protests were scheduled for 24 September. The Militsiya noted that, per the decision of the Shevchenkivskyi Court, such gatherings in the city centre were illegal, and claimed that ample warning had been given to protesters prior to the crackdown. The Militsiya claimed the arrest of 64 individuals, saying that none of the arrests had involved physical violence. Petro Opanasenko, deputy secretary of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs, said that he had no information regarding a bloodied man who was filmed at the scene of the protests. Opanasenko additionally alleged that two hunting knives and a grenade had been found on the ground at the intersection of Lyuteranska and . On 24 September, the planned rally took place outside the
Verkhovna Rada building, with around 5,000 people attending. At first comprising only supporters of the troika, they were later joined by Yushchenko, who stated that he would no longer "participate in public lies" by voting on the issues presented in the
Verkhovna Rada. Verkhovna Rada Chairman
Volodymyr Lytvyn called on the situation to be resolved peacefully, claiming that the state of the Ukrainian economy was the cause for the protests. A column of protesters began moving down
Instytutska Street towards the Presidential Office Building at 14:40, blocking traffic. Four minutes later, the protesters overran police cordons and began massing outside the Presidential Office Building, where Kuchma was meeting with Chinese and African ambassadors. Militsiya members in gas masks and automatic weapons blocked off the fourth floor and refused to permit the People's Deputies through. By 16:05, negotiations began, and by 17:25, Kuchma agreed to further negotiations the next day. An hour later, however, special police began swarming the building, and Kuchma fled. A group of People's Deputies declared a hunger strike, refusing to leave the building despite the increasing police presence. Members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and an investigator under the
Prosecutor General of Ukraine arrived at the building, where Moroz read the appeal for Kuchma's resignation. Lytvyn arrived at the building around 22:02, and agreed to hold an emergency session of the Verkhovna Rada on allegations that Kuchma had sold Kolchuga systems to Iraq.
19 October Protests again began on 19 October 2002, this time marking what was described by the organisers as the victims of Kuchma's government. A cast-iron sheet was placed on the corner of Bankova and Instytutska in lieu of a memorial. The day would prove to be the last of the major protests that year.
9 March On 4 December 2002, the leaders of the troika announced a protest scheduled for 9 March 2003 (the anniversary of
Taras Shevchenko's birth). They were opposed in this by Yushchenko, who called for protests on 5 March instead. Tymoshenko stated that the date would give the opposition the opportunity to be more prepared and professional, and expressed plans in the interim period to protest in Ukraine's oblasts rather than Kyiv. On 2 March 2003, opposition politicians gathered the "All-Ukrainian Extraordinary Congress of Deputies", where they called for the unification of the opposition and stated that the primary goal of all future electoral campaigns would be to remove Kuchma from power. Three days later, Kuchma held a televised address where he laid out proposals for constitutional reform in order to reduce the presidency's power and called for nationwide debate on the proposal. On the day before the protest occurred, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court barred marches and tents in
Old Kyiv. The protest began at 11:50, as members of the KPU, SPU, and BYuT began gathering. Another group of Our Ukraine Bloc members also joined the protest, and by 12:08, they had met on
Maidan Nezalezhnosti before moving to the Taras Shevchenko monument. There, calls were iterated by Tymoshenko and Yushchenko for a single candidate in the
2004 Ukrainian presidential election. A smaller group of nationalist protesters, led by
Oleksandr Turchynov and also including
Levko Lukianenko, travelled to
Lukyanivska Prison to protest the convictions of UNA–UNSO members during Ukraine without Kuchma. Polish newspaper
Gazeta Wyborcza observed that the events marked a change in the attitudes of the opposition, from the more militant attitude the previous year to instead looking towards the 2004 presidential election. The newspaper
Rzeczpospolita interviewed participants in the protest, who variously saw Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, or Symonenko as the ideal candidate. == Legacy ==