A protester's tent camp in Kyiv, Ukraine on 25 October, 2017. (c) NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved.
Ukraine’s “Great Political Reform” protest began as planned on 17 October 2017, though with a fraction of the bang its organisers were expecting. An hour into the gathering outside the Ukrainian parliament on a grey Tuesday morning, observers were under the impression supporters were still arriving. They weren’t.
The protest’s anti-corruption aims, if achieved, could fundamentally clean up the country’s notorious political system: an end to parliamentary immunity, the establishment of anti-corruption courts and reform of Ukraine's voting legislation. Organised by the anti-corruption politicians born out of the 2014 revolution, as well as former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, a total of 15 different political parties and organisations sent supporters.
