ORONO, Maine — Ukraine’s ousted president is on the run and its residents are contemplating their future, hoping for the best from new leadership.
Many Ukrainians are mourning those who lost their lives during last week’s clashes between protesters and government forces. Most media reports have placed the death toll around 88, but many Ukrainians believe the numbers are higher and are calling those killed “The Heavenly Hundred.” Hundreds more were injured.
Mark Bilyk, a 58-year-old Orono resident, was born in Australia to parents who were displaced from Ukraine after World War II. He still has aunts, uncles and cousins in the eastern European country bordering Russia, including his cousin Oksana. He keeps in touch with Ukrainian family and friends on Facebook.
“It’s emotional. It’s disturbing,” Bilyk said about the recent violence that has him worried for people in the country his parents came from, which he has visited several times in the past.
On Sunday, Oksana sat at her computer and Facebook-chatted with Bilyk 4,000 miles to the west. She lives in Ternopil, a city of more than 218,000 residents, one of western Ukraine’s major population centers. Things were quiet in Ternopil, she said, after several days of protests and fires set at government buildings.
“They want new people to come to power, they want to change all of the system,” Oksana said in one message. Oksana asked that the BDN withhold her last name for fear of reprisal.
A week of protests, violence and bloodshed in Kiev culminated this weekend with President Viktor Yanukovych’s disappearance, protesters storming his presidential complex, a parliamentary vote to oust him and a warrant for his arrest.
More than 260 miles to the west, in Oksana’s home, she said residents were in their third day of mourning on Sunday for the victims of the violence. Many were in church for much of the day.
Last week, protests spread from Kiev in the east to western cities. In Ternopil, protesters stormed police buildings and other government administration buildings.
Oksana said that at first police attempted to quell the protests but, after initial clashes, turned to protecting protesters from government forces. At some point during protests in Kiev, one of the sides began using live rounds and the death and injury tolls on both sides climbed. Each side blames the other.
Oksana said she fears for friends who are in Kiev to participate in the protest, including a university professor named Oleg who taught her husband. Oleg’s Facebook profile photo shows him standing among other protestors, wearing an orange construction helmet and face mask to shield himself from gas.
With the president ousted, questions remain about what Ukraine’s new government might look like. There is a distinct divide between west and east, with some in the eastern part of the country supporting tight ties with Russia and the western part open to a relationship with the European Union.
The unrest was sparked when the president broke off trade talks with the European Union under pressure from Russia, which threatened to jack up Ukraine’s gas bills if it moved forward with the trade agreement. People also were angered by the imprisonment of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the president’s bitter political opponent, on charges that she abused her power in forging a Russian gas deal. Many believed the charges were trumped up and politically motivated and called for her release.
The real problems go much deeper, into issues of corruption, economic issues and families’ struggles to feed themselves, Oksana said.
“We feel proud that we could witness the rebirth of the nation,” Oksana said. “We know that it’s a long process, but we hope that it will lead to change for the better.”