KIEV, December 16 (RIA Novosti) – City authorities in Ukraine’s capital said Monday that they will do without a centerpiece New Year tree this holiday season as the square normally reserved for it remains occupied by anti-government demonstrators.
Kiev administration culture chief Svetlana Zorina said Independence Square, which has served as the focal point of protests over a government decision last month to back away from closer ties with the EU, is the only place in the city with the required structures to support a 10-15 meters (33-50 feet) tall tree.
“There is no other place in the capital where this New Year’s tree can be installed,” she said.
The traditional New Year trees erected in city centers across many former Soviet republics are equivalent to the Christmas trees favored in the West.
Initially straightforwardly pro-European rallies in Kiev evolved into broader anti-government protests after police violently dispersed a protest at Independence Square on November 30, saying they wanted the square cleared so that the New Year tree could be set up there.
In the event, only a steel framework was installed before demonstrators retook the square and fenced it off with barricades in what has turned into a weeks-long sit-in.
The frame is now wrapped in a variety of political banners, pictures of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and is topped by flags of Ukraine.
