Hundreds of thousands of people took over the streets of the Ukrainian capital Kiev to demand the resignation of the government for turning its back on closer ties with the European Union in favor of Russia.  The crowd turned their anger onto a symbol of the oppressive Soviet past.

The protesters, who oppose a customs union with Russia, toppled a statue of Lenin and smashed it with hammers.  Although there’s nothing even remotely Leninist about Russia’s modern day profit-hungry regime, the statue was one of the few remaining reminders of the days when Ukraine’s affairs were dictated by Moscow.  The demonstrators do not want to go back to that.

Earlier, the daughter of jailed former Premier Yulia Tymoshenko address a crowd of more than 200,000 anti-government demonstrators, urging them not to give up and to continue applying pressure on the government of President Viktor Yanukovich to step aside.  The protests have only grown since 21 November, when Yanukovich left the EU at the altar.  Police stuck to the peripheries, and were nowhere to be seen in these crowds, even when the statue of Lenin was brought down.

Most Ukrainians believe a deal with the European Union is crucial to a brighter future that would bring a Western-style rule of law to combat deeply entrenched public corruption and cronyism among the country’s wealthy elite.