Trash Talk: Angry Ukrainians Throw an MP in a Dumpster

On Tuesday, Ukraine finally approved the agreement that precipitated the deposition of a president, the annexation of a peninsula, and the breakout of war. In Kiev, protesters took a fitting symbolic action: They tossed a legislator in a dumpster.

While Parliament gathered to approve a political and trade agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, demonstrators assembled in Kiev to decry as insufficient an anti-graft law, which also passed Tuesday. So when Vitaly Zhuravsky appeared outside, angry citizens deemed him an attractive outlet for their outrage. A former member of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, Zhuravsky was thrown into a garbage bin, along with his briefcase and a stray tire.

The episode was captured on video:

Tuesday was a seminal day in the crisis. Parliament also moved to grant eastern Ukraine temporary self-rule and passed a limited amnesty bill for those involved in the fighting in the east. A rebel commander said he would study the measure.

"After World War II, not a single nation has paid such a high price for their right to be European," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said. "Can you tell me, who now after this will be brave enough to shut the doors to Europe in front of Ukraine?"

Zhuravsky probably feels that he personally has paid his dues.