As the pickets have partially obstructed the main street Kreshchatik, the street lights have been switched off to let traffic be controlled by policemen on point-duty. The adjacent streets are jammed with cars.
The prevailingly young protesters representing the parties "Regions of Ukraine" and "Fraternity" are shouting out: "Freedom to Boris Kolesnikov! Ukraine is not 'the maidan'!, No to Orange Courts! The Press Into Courtroom!"
"We shall seek a change in Boris Kolesnikov's measure of restriction. There are no grounds for his being kept in custody," Viktor Yanukovich who made his appearance in the court where Kolesnikov is being tried told reporters.
Boris Kolesnikov was detained in Kiev on April 6 on suspicion of extortion.
The Ukrainian parliament's Commissioner for Human Rights Nina Karpachova referred to Kolesnikov's arrest as groundless. The incriminated extortion of the shares of the company "White Swan trading centre", allegedly committed in 2002, does not call for imprisonment, her press-service said.
Kolesnikov had been already once summoned to the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's office for testimony but on charges of "appeals to separatism and separation of the Donetsk coal region from Ukraine".
The opposition looks at Kolesnikov's arrest as political persecution. A meeting in his support was staged in Donetsk yesterday.
Ukraine's Supreme Rada (parliament) plans to listen to reports by Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun and Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko on Kolesnikov's arrest.
