I wanted to post this update from Ukrainska Pravda this past night, but Blogger didn't want to let me into my page... Here it is:

"The benches situation is explained in a 2 am story in Ukrainska Pravda. They are indeed dragging the benches over to near where the tents are, in order to protect themselves from violent intruders. According to the same story, part of Khreshchatyk isn't lit up (where we are, everything's as usual, but we're not right in the middle of it); there are about 200 tents over there and about 2,000 people staying in them; there're also about 1,000 people hanging out nearby - journalists and the locals, mainly (definitely no police there, ready to protect the citizens, okay?); some of the guys are asleep in the tents, despite freezing cold; and there're also about 1,000 people lining up at Institutska, awaiting the riot police storming of the tents."

Thank God, nothing violent happened during the night - though it wasn't a quiet night at all.

In the morning, another huge rally took place (150,000 people), and now there're about 10,000 by the Parliament (Verkhovna Rada), waiting for the rest to join them. It's very cold and windy again today - those people are true heroes.

One of the Kyiv universities (Kyiv Mohyla University) went on strike yesterday, but my alma mater (Kyiv Shevchenko University) didn't, until a few minutes ago, when the student protesters marched up there to have a rally right by the entrance. Somehow, it didn't surprise me at all that my university wasn't in the vanguard (the cult of plagiarism that some of my professors preached doesn't go well with being in the opposition) - but I'm glad there're enough decent people there.

The U.S. embassy staff (all except the ambassador) have announced their support for Yushchenko. Other countries' diplomats did the same. The Ukrainian embassy people in D.C. are also on Yushchenko's side - and they're now negotiating with their colleagues posted in other countries, so, hopefully, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be with the people, too.

Gazeta.ru has this wonderful headline this morning:

Yanukovych is Recognized Only by Putin

Yesterday, right after I posted an entry about Lviv City Council and left, Kyiv's mayor declared his support for Yushchenko. This is completely logical because most people in this city voted for Yushchenko, and the deputies we elected to the City Council have to listen to us (usually, though, it feels as if they were born and raised in the City Council building, and the corruption among them is something most people are taking for granted).

I have to run now but will write more later...