Entry into the capital is restricted by authorities and activists

Yesterday in Kyiv, restrictions on entry into the city, established by the Cabinet of Ministers from 0.00 on February 19, continued to apply. Traffic police officers inspect buses, randomly checking passenger cars. In addition to the traffic police, civil activists also set up their pickets on highways. They tried to prevent their political opponents from other cities from entering the capital. The roads leading to Kyiv were observed by Kommersant correspondent ALEXEY BARANOVSKY.

Restrictions on entry into Kyiv, established by the Cabinet of Ministers from 0.00 on February 19, continue to apply.
Photo: PHL

Restrictions on entry into Kyiv were established by the Cabinet of Ministers from 0.00 on February 19. In fact, cordons of military trucks and dump trucks with sand were installed on the Zhitomir, Odessa, Brovary and Boryspil highways on Tuesday. On Wednesday, this led to massive traffic jams at the entrances to the city. In particular, on the Zhytomyr highway, drivers of regular buses dropped off passengers, urging them to walk to Kyiv. Yesterday morning, the Zhytomyr highway, at the 6th kilometer from the Okruzhnaya Road, was almost completely blocked by three trucks, which left only the far right lane for passage. There were ten traffic police cars behind the trucks. A Kommersant correspondent saw two buses with Lviv license plates on the side of the road, with passengers crowding around them. Traffic police officers found a bunch of wooden stakes with rags wrapped around the ends in one of the buses.

“The torches were confiscated,” a guy of about 25 in a green and white scarf from the Lviv Carpathians explained to a Kommersant correspondent.

- Why do you need torches?

- What do you mean why? “Maintain a fiery curtain that holds back demons well,” the guy answered, hiding his face in the scarf of his favorite team.

Following the torches, several batons, smoke bombs, as well as body armor and helmets flew to the ground. Traffic police officers, recording on video the process of confiscating all the ammunition, pulled out one and a half dozen wooden shields from the luggage compartment and placed them in a row. The traffic police officers were not interested in the faces of the activists who arrived. But the bus passengers were filmed by a man in civilian clothes who did not want to communicate with the Kommersant correspondent.

“We have orders to confiscate all weapons.” There is no reason to prevent the movement of civilians,” a traffic police officer explained to Kommersant.

-Whose order?

- Above. Anti-terrorism measures.

Meanwhile, a dispute broke out near the bus: whether helmets and body armor are weapons. The residents of Lvov were ready to say goodbye to torches and clubs, but did not want to part with their protective equipment. After a five-minute argument, traffic police officers decided that the protesters would take their helmets and body armor with them.

However, it turned out that the man in civilian clothes was in charge here, about whom the traffic police officers said that he was assigned “from somewhere above.” The man behaved very aggressively. He indicated when to open traffic on the single lane and when to close it, and was always calling somewhere.

“Moscow henchman,” a strong man of about 50 spat, looking in his direction.

Gutted Lviv buses entered Kyiv.

On the Odessa highway near the Teremki microdistrict, the road was blocked by two trucks, but the entrance was controlled by Maidan representatives armed with bats and rebar. On the green fence that stood along the road, they wrote: “Terema checkpoint. Anti-titushki.” It turned out that its participants were going to prevent Maidan opponents from entering Kyiv.

“We don’t hit anything, we don’t break vehicles!” - the tall young man who was in charge here shouted to his comrades.

Automaidan crews began to arrive at the site of the “people’s checkpoint.” Some of them went further along the highway, promising to report on approaching buses. Seeing the buses, Maidan participants blocked traffic. Having made sure that there were no opponents in the stopped transport, the protesters retreated to the side of the road. Three traffic police officers standing nearby watched all this, smiling.

“Yesterday I met this Zhilin (Evgeniy Zhilin, head of the Kharkov organization Oplot. - Kommersant) near the Arsenalnaya metro station,” the head of the Antititushki checkpoint told a Kommersant correspondent. “I wanted to talk, they say, there is no need to kill each other, we are all Ukrainians, but he did not want to listen.

One of the participants in the Antititushki checkpoint alternately read out loud the latest news from a smartphone:

— The protesters recaptured the October Palace from the Berkut!

- Glory to heroes! — they shouted enthusiastically at the checkpoint and stopped the next bus.

Entry into the capital was also difficult on other routes. Thus, travel to Kyiv from Brovary was open only on one lane out of four, while the rest were filled with trucks loaded with sand. In the Gostomel area, the road was simply covered with sand, leaving one lane for travel. However, yesterday Maidan activists cleared the road with shovels. Neither the traffic police nor the Berkut unit that arrived to help could prevent this.

The Boryspil highway was blocked in two places at once. Traffic police officers wearing bulletproof vests and armed with machine guns did not allow trucks and buses into the capital, turning them onto a bypass road. At the same time, the cordons could be crossed on foot, as many bus passengers did. Traffic police officers did not interfere with pedestrian movement into the city.

On the road to Kyiv from Obukhov there were three armored personnel carriers, as well as dump trucks with sand and stones. Here the traffic police allowed only passenger cars into the city, randomly checking their trunks. Some motorists who were planning to leave the capital, seeing such a powerful checkpoint, turned back because they were not sure that they would be able to return later.

Newspaper "Kommersant Ukraine" No. 30 dated 02.21.2014, p. 4

Authors:

Alexey Baranovsky

Themes:

Euromaidan

Everything is going according to plan