Ukraine: 'The dictatorship has fallen.' But what will take its place? | World news | The Observer
As one disgraced president fled Kiev in the early hours of Saturday
morning, so another aspiring one had landed in the city by evening.
Within a few hours of being released from her prison hospital in the
eastern city of Kharkiv, Yulia Tymoshenko had flown to Kiev and was being wheeled into Independence Square to address the crowds.
Hunched
in a wheelchair, needed because of back problems, but with a resolute
expression and her hair pulled into her trademark plait, she yelled
rousing words from the stage to the crowd, telling them they must stay
in central Kiev until their work was over, and those responsible for the
violence are punished.
"If we let those who shot bullets into the
hearts of our heroes escape responsibility, if we forgive them, it will
be our shame for ever," she said, in a voice cracked with emotion. She
had earlier said she plans to run for president, in elections that could
now come as early as May. "Our homeland will from today on be able to
see the sun and sky as a dictatorship has fallen," she added.
Protesters wave the Ukrainian flag in front of the residence of president Viktor Yanukovych. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA
