KIEV, Aug. 15 – Police will step up security measures and introduce 24-hour street monitoring now that opposition groups have announced plans to hold a massive march and rally on Independence Day on August 24.

The march will be the first show of strength by the Dictatorship Resistance Committee, formed earlier by 13 opposition groups, led by imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymshenko’s Batkivshchyna party.

The committee is supposed to coordinate protest actions across Ukraine after the authorities have stepped up pressure on opposition figures, including arresting Tymoshenko on August 5.

“On August 24 we will get together near the Taras Shevchenko monument at about 11:00 am, and will then have a march that will end with a rally on Mykhaylivska Square,” Oleksandr Turchynov, the No. 2 in the Batkivshchna party, said.

The march is a response to a decision by President Viktor Yanukovych to skip the holding of festivities and a traditional parade allegedly for the sake of saving funds.

Meanwhile, police will step up its security measures in the run-up to the Independence Day and will introduce 24-hour street monitoring beginning August 19, according to Anatoliy Lazarev, the chief of the main staff at the Interior Ministry.

“The ministry has unfolded the work of the operative staff that beginning from August 19 will be working in enhanced regime round the clock due to the approaching holidays,” Lazarev said in statement.

Lazarev, however, denied the measure being introduced in connection with the plan by the opposition to step up protests.

Tymoshenko is on trial for negotiating a controversial gas deal with Russia in January 2009.

Tymoshenko, who was arrested on August 5 on contempt of court charges, has been seeking to energize her supporters for massive street protests against President Viktor Yanukovych.

However, her repeated calls have failed to spark the protests beyond a small group of protesters staying round the clock in a tent camp erected near the Pecherskiy district court where she is tried.

Serhiy Sobolev, a senior lawmaker and a member of Tymoshenko’s group in Parliament, said last week there will be “very serious” protest actions in August and September that may lead to early parliamentary election in the fall.

Tymoshenko’s campaign on Friday opened her Facebook account to coordinate actions among protesters for overthrowing the “criminal regime” of Yanukovych, Batkivshcyna said in a statement. (tl/ez)