Opposition in Ukraine Ready to Go Home but Not Let Down Its Guard

KIEV, Ukraine —  They were still singing on the karaoke stage of the demonstrators’ tent encampment in central Kiev on Thursday evening. There was plenty of hot soup and tea. Hundreds of tents, large and small, remained on the capital’s main street. But the electricity in the air had dissipated.

Nearby Independence Square had fallen silent after 17 consecutive days of mass demonstrations, and most of the several thousand campers were thinking of heading home. The Ukrainian parliament’s approval Wednesday of safeguards against electoral fraud in a Dec. 26 presidential rematch between opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich had refocused their attention from the streets to the campaign trail.

Many demonstrators, backers of the pro-Western Yushchenko, were thinking of how they could serve as election monitors or otherwise help ensure that cheating would not mar the new vote, triggered when Yanukovich’s narrow Nov. 21 victory was overturned by Ukraine’s Supreme Court because of fraud.

Other Yushchenko supporters planned to stay put, as a kind of insurance that massive rallies could be quickly restaged if necessary. Fresh recruits were also expected to show up. The tent city was downsizing, but it wasn’t going away.

Natalie Figurna, 20, a student at a technical university in western Ukraine, said demonstrators had enjoyed their time in the encampment, which still blocks the capital’s main street.

“It’s maybe not cold because people are sleeping together,” she said in English. “We don’t feel bored. There is music always, and we may dance, we may listen to the news.

“The atmosphere is very warm, and we feel that we all are here for our victory, for democracy, for truth, and this makes us closer. This helps us to stay on our feet even when we are very tired and exhausted.”

Her friend Natalya Bogush, 18, a medical student from western Ukraine, quickly interjected, “We are not tired and exhausted. We are happy and glad we are together.”

But with classes resuming and exams waiting, Bogush said she was planning to leave for home Thursday night.

“We need people here, but not in such a huge amount,” she explained, also in English.

“I will do everything I can in my native town, in Ivano-Frankivsk. I want to stay here very much. But only because of my study I have to go, because my profession is very important. I will be a doctor, so I have to study.”

Petro Svalyavchuk, 21, an art student from the western city of Lviv, also planned to head home soon.

If the election campaign and vote count run smoothly, Svalyavchuk said, he plans to return to Kiev on Dec. 27 to celebrate what he expects to be Yushchenko’s win, and then the New Year.

In another sign of easing tensions, demonstrators lifted their blockade of the Cabinet building on Thursday, allowing employees to return to work. Until Wednesday, thousands had blocked its entrances, and hundreds more stood in protest on a park embankment just across the street.

Demonstrators in the park had for days kept up a rhythmic racket by beating 20 makeshift drums. The metal barrels remained late Thursday, but they were silent. Only half a dozen people remained, gathered around a campfire.

“We are here because we’ve been here from the very beginning, and we want to struggle for truth and our freedom until the end,” said Vladislav Masliy, 45, a construction worker. “Everything will be great. We want to achieve it with our drums. We’ll drum some more, to support the people.... I’m here so that my children can live well. I have eight of them. I want them to live better than me.”

At the tent city, Natalya Nedashkovska, 50, a clothing designer, and her friend Halyna Simitska, 57, a pensioner, were busy serving up hot potato soup and shredded cabbage. They have been traveling 70 miles a day to Kiev to cook and serve vegetables that they grew. They have no plans to stop.

“We don’t think about the number of people here,” Nedashkovska said. “We’ll support those who are here. The people need food, and we’ll bring it. How can we leave them? We are brothers and sisters. Who’ll help them but us? We are one people. They are fighting for truth and justice. If we fight for our freedom, our children’s future will be happy.”