KYIV, Oct. 22 - A group of army veterans joined a massive protest rally on Saturday giving President Petro Poroshenko five days to submit anti-corruption legislation to Parliament.

The veterans set up their camp in front of the Parliamentary building, joining mostly civil protesters that had erected their camp on October 17.

The development adds pressure on Poroshenko, who has refused to meet a group of lawmakers and protest leaders last week, signaling more escalation ahead.

“The veterans of the War for Independence set up the camp and gave the president five days to submit the bills on the anti-corruption court and on impeachment,” Yegor Sobolev, a senior lawmakers from the Samopomich group, said in a Facebook post. “They suggest not playing with them.”

The comment shows that the protesters have been expanding their demands, now adding a demand to submit a bill on impeachment of the president.

The protesters began the action on October 17 by demanding the approval of three anti-corruption measures. Adding the bill on impeachment shows the protesters zero in on Poroshenko.

Mikheil Saakashvili, a former Georgian president and a former Odessa governor, the de-facto leader of the protest, said Sunday the rally will continue at least through November 7.

“Over the next few weeks we have to rebuild this platform into a very calm, powerful and a safe place,” Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili plans to travel to several regions to secure more support for the protest action, another sign the protesters have been seeking to expand.

The developments come five days after Saakashvili urged Poroshenko to step down accusing him of being unable to fight corruption.

The protesters issued three major demands for the country's president.

The most crucial involved stripping lawmakers of immunity from prosecution and launching an anti-corruption court that Kiev's lenders at the IMF have labeled a "benchmark" of Ukraine's progress toward Western standards.

A third demand called for changes to the election system that would help independent lawmakers gain seats.

In a small victory to protesters, Parliament on October 19 sent a bill on lifting lawmakers' immunity from prosecution to the Constitutional Court for review.

An anti-riot officer and three demonstrators were hurt last week in scuffles that involved nearly 5,000 people in the heart of Kiev, according to police.

Poroshenko was a Western favorite who rose to power when a bloody 2014 revolution toppled a Kremlin-backed regime and pulled Ukraine out of Russia's historic orbit.

But Poroshenko's critics fear that he has put the breaks on institutional changes and the difficult task of eliminating state graft in order to preserve the existing political order.

Although the protest remains mostly peaceful, the government must be very careful in how they address the problem to avoid escalation.

“Although the protests are unlikely to foment a second Euromaidan movement, they could still present a challenge to the Ukrainian government,” Stratfor, a U.S.-based strategic forecasting firm, said in a report. (nr/ez)