KIEV: Some 2,000 people gathered in central Kiev on Sunday to support a call by ex regional governor Mikheil Saakashvili -- also a former president of Georgia -- to rise up against the Ukrainian government.
Known for pro-Western reforms in his native Georgia, Saakashvili, who quit as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region this month, was one of the foreign technocrats appointed to top government positions to put the country on a pro-European path.
But Saakashvili, who was head of state of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, resigned because he was being held back in his efforts to fight corruption among high-ranking officials.
Protestors brandishing flags of Ukraine, Georgia and the European Union chanted "Glory to Ukraine!" and "Mikheil!" as Saakashvili addressed the crowd, an AFP reporter saw at the scene.
"They steal everything they can reach," Saakashvili said on stage, referring to Ukrainian officials.
"They are afraid of me because I know how to destroy their house of cards. They are afraid of me because I'm not silent."
Pensioner Valentyna Gerashchenko, 80, was among those who demonstrated in support of Saakashvili.
"We haven't found a person like this in Ukraine," she said. "They are all corrupt."
Saakashvili was a passionate supporter of Ukraine's 2014 pro-EU revolution that ousted the Russian-backed president and set the former Soviet republic on its westward course.
But he had repeated run-ins with some members of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's inner circle and was frequently accused of having outsized political ambitions of his own.
Saakashvili also vowed to form an opposition political movement that could oust Poroshenko and force early elections.
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