Kiev's tent city blossoms as protest grows

"TENT City" has become the symbol of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, a sprawling encampment that extends the length of the city’s central Kreshchatik Boulevard.

Normally the expensive shops on either side are the province of the city’s rich, the small band of tycoons and businessmen making money in a country where poverty is the norm.

But for the past week it has been home to an extraordinary encampment; what started as a few tents set up with nails hammered into the tarmac to give out-of-town protesters a place to sleep has grown into huge encampment housing thousands of Viktor Yushchenko’s supporters.

Tent City is a cross between a rock festival and a garrison. Army tents are wedged cheek-by-jowl, all now pitched on top of polystyrene foam sheets to keep out the cold and damp.

Sympathetic army commanders have provided tents for storing food, and have parked mobile cookers on green trailers to boil water.

Anastasia Martynenko, an 18-year-old student, has been here from the beginning. She lives in Kiev, but spends her days and much of each night at Tent City.

"It’s hard to stay away. When I get home, I can’t sleep at night, I can’t think of anything else but coming back here," she said.

"We are here because the election was stolen. If the election was honest and [Viktor] Yanukovich was elected, then I think there would be less protest," said Ms Martynenko. "I voted for Yushchenko because he is the lesser of the two evils."

Permanent euphoria is the best way to describe the buzz surrounding Tent City. But whether it will last if the protest extends to weeks rather than days is unclear.