Revolution in Ukraine - Nov. 24, 2004

Wilf was in Kyiv yesterday and gives us a live update of the situation there. There are also many employees from our company in Lviv that went to Kyiv today.

Here is an e-mail from Wilf: It is a very gentle and kind revolution, so there is absolutely no danger. People are singing and helping each other. Ukrainians consider this a once-in-lifetime opportunity to throw off the Soviet/Russian yoke. I have never seen so many people in one place, willing to brave the cold for hours on end. There must have been many hundreds of thousands; even this morning in Lviv, there were over one hundred thousand in the street during a nasty snowstorm. I am not sure how all this will end, but I have a feeling it will end well. I am proud that the Ukrainians are willing to fight for their future. Yuri Shcherbak, former ambassador to Ukraine, told me that on Monday Ukrainian democracy was born; it is the beginning of a civil society.

I am proud that the RE3W team has had the discipline to keep things going. Many of our SS guys are in the streets in the morning and working in the
evening. Serhiy took 80 SS employees to Kyiv to demonstrate for freedom, so he will not join us for the call today.

Here are some photos from Lviv.

Supporters of Ukraine's opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko take part in a rally in Kiev's main Independence Square.	Thousands of troops are brought in from Russia			Demonstrators stay through the night.
Opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko greets his supporters during a rally outside House of Ukrainian Parlament in Kiev. Yushchenko declared himself president during an emergency parliament session attended by his supporters.
	Supporters of Ukraine's opposition leader take part in a rally outside the presidential office in Kiev.
			The United States and the European Union have all condemned the election as a fraudulent exercise. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who backed Yanukovich's election from the start, has already congratulated the premier. Putin has the most to lose here. (He gave $600M to Yanukovich.) Yushchenko, a former prime minister who narrowly won the first round and was put well ahead of Yanukovich in an exit poll, says he was robbed of victory by mass cheating. It is believed that 70% of the vote was for Yushchenko. Some cities have reported 120% voting. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday the United States did not accept the results of the disputed election in Ukraine as legitimate and called for immediate action.
Ukraine's presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko takes an oath with his hand on a bible at the parliament hall in Kiev, November 23, 2004. Ukraine plunged deeper into turmoil with the losing candidate in presidential elections reading the oath of office in parliament while some 200,000 supporters outside demanded that the government admit it had cheated.				Read more about things in the Kyiv Post or the BBC News. Here are several pages of additional photos.