Latvia FM holds talks with Ukraine opposition

  • 2013-12-05
  • From wire reports, RIGA

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics is in Ukrainian for talks with opposition leaders in the city's Independence Square.

Posting on his twitter account, Mr Rinkevics said: ''I will be going to Independence Square in the afternoon to meet with Ukrainian opposition leaders."

Ukraine on Thursday, Dec. 5 hosts top diplomats, including Rinkevics, for a meeting of the OSCE security group overshadowed by two weeks of mass protests over its rejection of an EU deal, as demonstrators kept up the pressure on President Viktor Yanukovych.

It's estimated up to  500,000 people participated in the pro-EU rally in Kiev's Independence Square last Sunday, Dec. 1.

The AFP news agency reports that thousands of anti-Yanukovych protesters remain on Kiev's central Independence Square which they have controlled and surrounded with barricades since the mass protest at the weekend.

The protests follow after Ukraine refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union at the Vilnius Summit last month. Ukrainian President Yanukovych said that, in doing so, he was protecting the vulnerable in the country. He has not ruled out signing an agreement in the future.