President Viktor Janukovitsj har valget mellom krig eller nederlag. Han står på kanten av stupet. Opposisjonen er mer bestemt enn noensinne på at han skal ut.

Men det er ikke sikkert det er Janukovitsj som bestemmer. For Vladimir Putin vil det være et enormt nederlag hvis regimet i Kiev faller og opposisjonen innleder forhandlinger med EU. Putins ære står på spill. Han er forfengelig nå som OL begynner. Men nettopp æren kan forhindre at han  Janukovitsj innføre unntakstilstand: Ukraina er for tett på verdenspressen. Bilder av ofre for politibrutalitet vil være dårlig PR og kan ødelegge hele OL-imaget.

Det kan være at dette hensynet binder Putins hender.

Catherine Ashton gjorde det klart søndag at EU og USA står klar med en krisepakke til Ukraina.

At the Munich conference on Sunday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, confirmed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that Europe and the United States were developing a sizable short-term aid package for Ukraine, in anticipation of longer-term assistance from the I.M.F. down the line. Mr. Yanukovych had resisted aid from the fund in part because of conditions that included politically painful austerity measures.

Opposisjonslederne var i München og fikk en stor boost av velkomsten der. De kom hjem til Majdan-plassen søndag og kunne overføre optimismen på folkemengden. Folk lukter at det kan gå mot seier, og det kan gjøre planer om unntakstilstand umulige. Folket vil slåss for sin frihet.

“There is one way out,” Vitali Klitschko, the former champion boxer who leads a party called the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform, told the crowd. “To cut this knot, we need a full reset of power and this system.

“Yes?” Mr. Klitschko asked. “Yes!” the people roared back.

The demonstrators reflected a broad mix of Ukrainian society, including parents towing children by the hand, past photographs of dead demonstrators displayed on makeshift shrines, as well as some of the tough young men — many of them members of right-wing groups — who have shown a willingness to battle the police on Kiev’s streets.

Though large, the turnout was far lower than at the movement’s peak in early December, when more than 100,000 people gathered on three successive Sundays. Still, the diversity of the crowd demonstrated the extent to which the opposition to Mr. Yanukovych has hardened across many segments of Ukrainian society. It also helped explain why street protests have spread to regional capitals in eastern Ukraine, long the president’s base of political support.

“I admire peaceful protest, but when it comes to violence I understand it, too, and support it, as a manifestation of the people’s will,” Pavlo Bezsmertnyi, 45, a freelance translator, said of his decision to attend the rally despite the threat of violence. “I don’t judge people who come here to fight. I understand that this government, this president, is not what we deserve, and we want to change it.”

Anna Hrytsenko, 50, in a crowd of people streaming into the square, said, “If you are afraid you won’t achieve anything.”

Janukovitsj forsøkte seg med jernneven 30. november. Det førte ikke frem. Skjebner som den til Dimitro Bulatov har hatt stikk motsatt virkning: bildene av hans mishandlede ansikt har fortalt verden om hva Janukovitsj står for.