Miners break through security cordons near Ukrainian Presidential Administration building

KYIV. April 22 (Interfax) – Over a thousand miners who approached the Presidential Administration edifice on Wednesday morning to deliver their demands have broken through security cordons on Bankova Street in downtown Kyiv and came close to the building.

The protesters are pounding their helmets against the ground and shouting. They have not expressed their demands but their behavior is aggressive, an Interfax correspondent reported.

About a hundred police officers have formed several cordons near the Presidential Administration building. National Guard servicemen have been attached to them as well.

The third congress of Ukrainian miners held in Kyiv on Tuesday demanded that the president dismiss Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchushyn.

The congress attended by approximately 800 delegates also wants a meeting of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council to elaborate measures against the coal industry crisis.

The congress appealed for the adjustment of the Ukrainian national budget and sufficient support to the mining industry.

The miners said national strikes would be organized if the resolutions of their congress are ignored.