麥凱恩烏克蘭“示威” 爲反對派助陣

A showdown between Russia, on one side, and the United States and the European Union, on the other, drew closer here Sunday, as two American senators told a crowd of hundreds of thousands of protesters that Ukraine’s future lies to the west, not the east.

“We are here,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), “to support your just cause: the sovereign right to determine [Ukraine’s] own destiny freely and independently. And the destiny you seek lies in Europe.”

Added Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): “Ukraine’s future stands with Europe, and the U.S. stands with Ukraine.”

“Molodtsi,” the crowd chanted in Ukrainian, indicating its approval. But the president whom the opposition so despises, Viktor Yanukovych, is heading Tuesday for Russia to cement deals involving natural gas purchases and financial credits to prop up his country’s ailing economy.

Yanukovych has vowed that he will not commit Ukraine to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new Eurasian Customs Union, but the Ukrainian opposition doesn’t believe him.

Murphy, McCain and European politicians who addressed the crowd in Kiev on Sunday turned up the pressure on Yanukovych, promising that their governments will consider individual financial sanctions against responsible Ukrainian officials if there is any further outbreak of police violence against the protesters who come and go at the semi-permanent encampment on Kiev’s Independence Square.

Yanukovych has tried to mollify the opposition by resuming talks with the E.U. on a trade agreement. His Nov. 21 decision to back away from the deal triggered the protest movement.

But in Brussels on Sunday, the E.U. commissioner for expansion, Stefan Fule, announced on Twitter that he was suspending negotiations with Ukraine on a revised trade agreement because Yanukovych’s words and actions on the issue were “moving further and further apart.”

Ukraine’s arguments in favor of better terms than those agreed to earlier this year have “no grounds in reality,” Fule wrote.

Still, Elmar Brok, a member of the European Parliament, told the crowd in Kiev, “The door for Ukraine to Europe is open.”

Opposition leaders are concerned that if Yanukovych signs an agreement on Ukraine’s eventual membership in Russia’s Eurasian Customs Union, that would remove the possibility of a pact with the E.U.

“If the agreement is signed, he can remain in Moscow and not return to Kiev,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk, head of the Fatherland party, said from the stage here Sunday.

Demonstrators have turned out for three weeks in the encampment on Independence Square, expanding the scope of their protest to denounce police violence and political corruption. The protesters insist that they will not leave until Yanukovych is booted out of office. But it is unclear which side in the fight for Ukraine’s future has more stamina and resolve.

The government is “expecting cold weather to break people’s spirits,” said Yakov Hutsul, 29, who runs an air-conditioning business in Ternopil, in western Ukraine. “But we’ll be here. Cold weather is not the main evil we’re contending with. There is no way back.”

With the temperature hovering around freezing, Sunday’s turnout appeared to be somewhat smaller than a huge rally a week earlier, but news agencies estimated that it still drew about 200,000 people, bedecked in hats, scarves and Ukrainian flags.

A smaller rally of about 15,000 people, also arrayed in Ukrainian flag paraphernalia, showed its support for Yanukovych in a hilltop park near the parliament building. “We’re here so this can all end peacefully,” said Lyudmila Akhmedzhanova, 50, a teacher who, unusually for a Yanukovych supporter, comes from western Ukraine. “And we’re here for the European Union.”

She said that she was not opposed to an eventual alliance with the European Union but that now was not the time. “We’re supporting Yanukovych because we need to wait a little,” Akhmedzhanova said. “With time, we can come to a European level.”

At promptly 4 p.m., the Yanukovych backers dispersed. “These are all bureaucrats,” said Bogdan Vuyko, 57, who lives in Sevastopol and came to observe both camps. Most of the pro-government demonstrators were not from Kiev, he said. “They have to get home and get to work tomorrow.”

Vuyko said some of his friends had been pressed by Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, which organized the pro-government rally, into attending. “Nobody’s actually listening to the speakers,” he said.

The square where the protest against Yanukovych is rooted, known to all simply as “the Maidan,” has taken a central place in the lives of some Kievans. “When I wake up and turn on the radio and hear that the Maidan is still alive,” said Yelena Gorlocheva, 51, “I know I can get up and make myself a coffee.”

Solid lines of police vehicles and heavily armored officers separated the two rallies Sunday. No serious incidents were reported.

Kateryna Bondar, 22, part of the anti-government demonstration, said Yanukovych’s suspension of four officials Saturday for their involvement in a police raid against protesters was an insufficient step. She said that even if he fired the prime minister, Mykola Azarov, that still wouldn’t be enough.

“He has to take first responsibility,” she said. “There’s nothing he can do to save himself. Firing others is a sign of cowardice.”

She said the protest would continue until Yanukovych is gone.

“You are making history,” Murphy, the senator, told the crowd. “If you are successful, the United States will stand with you every step of the way.”

McCain commended veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan who have been helping to defend the protest site. “Ukraine will make Europe better,” he said, “and Europe will make Ukraine better.”

He then quoted the 19th-century Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko: “Love your Ukraine, love her in cruel times, love her in cruel moments, pray to God for her.”據美國《華盛頓郵報》12月16日報道，當地時間15日，兩位美國參議員在烏克蘭首都基輔發表演講，明確告知臺下數萬名反對派示威者“烏克蘭的未來在西方，而不是東方”。由此，烏克蘭當局面臨的壓力倍增，它必須儘快給出“向西還是往東”這道單選題的答案。

***美國支持烏克蘭“向西”

15日，駐守在基輔獨立廣場的反對派示威者迎來兩位特殊的“遠方來客”——美國參議員約翰·麥凱恩和克里斯托弗·墨菲。他們發表演講，公開闡明美國支持烏克蘭融入歐盟一體化進程的立場。

“我們來這裏是爲了支持你們的正義事業：自由、獨立地決定（烏克蘭）命運的主權權利。”麥凱恩賣力演說、試圖讓臺下的觀衆相信烏克蘭的命運與歐洲相連，“烏克蘭將使歐洲變得更好，歐洲也會使烏克蘭變得更好”。

爲了讓自己的話語激起更多共鳴，麥凱恩還引用了19世紀烏克蘭詩人塔拉斯·舍甫琴科的名句：“熱愛你的烏克蘭，在野蠻的時代愛她，在殘酷的時刻愛她，在上帝面前爲她祈禱。”

而站在一旁的墨菲也補充道：“烏克蘭的未來在歐洲，美國支持烏克蘭作出這一選擇……你們正在創造歷史！”

***烏克蘭當局傾向“往東”？

儘管兩位“美國代表”的演講贏得現場反對派示威者的喝彩和支持，但烏克蘭當局似乎打算衝破阻撓、“往東”參與俄羅斯主導的歐亞關稅同盟。

15日深夜，烏克蘭總理尼古拉·阿扎羅夫作客該國一檔電視訪談節目，他表示烏克蘭和俄羅斯計劃在17日舉行的烏俄國家委員會會議上通過一個路線圖以改善兩國貿易關係。除此之外，烏克蘭還希望與歐盟和俄羅斯就成立三邊財團來管理烏克蘭輸氣系統重啓談判。

“我們希望重啓有歐盟參與的三邊談判，從而爲天然氣輸送和天然氣運輸系統管理提供透明的條件。”儘管謀求改善烏俄貿易關係，但阿扎羅夫否認烏克蘭傾向於加入歐亞關稅同盟，“這些都是猜測。我們準備的文件中，全部與加入關稅同盟無關”。

15日，歐盟擴大事務專員斯蒂凡·菲萊發微博稱，已暫停就吸收烏克蘭加入歐盟一體化進程的談判，而原因就是“（烏克蘭總統）亞努科維奇的言行說明他已漸行漸遠”，他還說，烏克蘭希望爭取到更好入盟條件的言論“在現實中沒有依據”。

由此，分析人士認爲，歐盟能否與亞努科維奇及其政府達成協議“實在很令人懷疑”。

***鬥爭雙方需“比拼”耐力

15日，麥凱恩和墨菲以及歐洲政客向反對派示威者承諾，假若烏克蘭警方暴力對待示威者，美國和歐洲國家政府將考慮對涉事的烏克蘭官員進行個人金融制裁。

“亞努科維奇揹負的壓力瞬間增加。”《華盛頓郵報》指出，基輔獨立廣場的反對派抗議活動已持續了三週，示威者誓言除非亞努科維奇下臺否則絕不離開，“但目前還不清楚，究竟哪一方更有耐力和決心？”

目前，基輔的氣溫已降至零下，反對派示威者略有縮減，但據當地新聞機構的估計，仍有大約20萬人還在堅守。“政府希望嚴寒會打擊人們的士氣，但我們仍會守在這裏，我們沒有退路，”29歲的雅科夫·胡圖蘇爾說。