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Ukrainian Police Tear-Gas Anti-Lockdown Protesters in Kyiv's Maidan

Jamie Dettmer

   Ukrainian riot police used tear gas Tuesday to clear anti-lockdown
   protesters from the Maidan, Kyiv's central square and backdrop for the
   2014 popular uprising that toppled former President Viktor Yanukovych.

   Several thousand protesters, including small-business owners, rallied
   against a planned nationwide coronavirus lockdown slated for January8
   -- a day after the widely celebrated Orthodox Christmas holiday. Police
   moved in to break up the demonstration as people began pitching tents
   on the square.

   The latest anti-lockdown uprising since April but the first to turn
   violent, Tuesday's protests come amid signs of a worsening pandemic and
   widespread claims that coronavirus case numbers are being suppressed by
   local and regional officials.

   Residents in towns and villages in Ukraine's west and north tell VOA
   that hospitals are short of medical staff, who are either falling sick
   themselves or sometimes refusing to work without personal protective
   gear. Hospitals in some areas have reached capacity for intensive care
   patients.

   Authorities said 40 police officers were injured in the clashes, some
   of them suffering chemical burns to their eyes when protesters threw
   tear gas canisters back at them.

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