Kyiv maidan reboots to protest Steinmeier plan

More than 10,000 pro-Western Ukrainians gathered on
Kyiv’s Independence Square, commonly known as the “maidan,” on Oct. 6 to voice
their opposition to the plans of President Volodymyr Zelensky to use the
Steinmeier formula to implement the Minsk Accords. The “No Capitulation” event
is the latest in a series of protests throughout the country that were ignited
on Oct. 1, the day Zelensky announced he would adopt the Steinmeier formula to
implement the Minsk Accords. Zelensky had attempted to calm the public with an
Oct. 3 video statement in which he made the promise that “I will never
surrender Ukraine.” Yet the Oct. 6 turnout indicated that Zelensky’s opponents
are not convinced.

Among those in attendance was former President
Poroshenko, who is being investigated on more than a dozen criminal cases being
reviewed by the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR).

That evening, Andriy Bohdan, the head of the
President’s Office, reposted on Facebook alleged screenshots of money being
offered to those willing to protest on Oct. 6, implying the protests were
preplanned and paid for. In response, protest leaders added to their list of
demands of the president that Bohdan resign. “This person is provoking now a
civil conflict with such posts,” protests leaders said, as reported by the
hromadske.ua news site. Other demands included rejecting special status for the
Donbas region, or de facto autonomy, and refusing the withdrawing of Ukrainian
soldiers from the demarcation line.

The Khmelnytskiy Regional Council, Kropyvnytskiy City
Council and Sumy City Council were the latest local bodies approving statements
on Oct. 4 calling for caution in implementing the Steinmeier formula, or in
some cases outright opposing it. Meanwhile, Andriy Biletskiy, the head of the
National Corps paramilitary organization, announced that his forces have
arrived in the vicinity of the town of Zolote on the separation line in the
Luhansk region once the planned withdrawal occurs.

“If the president, the government, don’t fulfill their
direct obligation – defending every Ukrainian, every centimeter of Ukrainian
land – then we veteran-volunteers will fulfill it again. This is our last
checkpoint, and we vow never to abandon it. I believe there won’t be a
withdrawal, and only a great Ukrainian victory,” Biletskiy said in a video
statement posted on Oct. 6.