Protests in Ukraine. Photo: Wiki Commons.

As the death toll in Ukrainian anti-government riots reached 75  on Friday, an unnamed protester, speaking to thousands gathered in Kiev’s Independence Square, called on the country’s Jewish oligarchs to pressure President Victor Yanukovich to step down, the UK’s Jewish Chronicle reported on Friday.

The speaker said he was Muslim and urged Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Victor Pinchuk and David Zhvania, Ukranian oligarchs with links to the country’s opposition movement, to reach out to the president.

He said: “You practice Judaism. In the holy synagogue, you have seats with placards. And you, today, are the only people who have access to Yanukovich.”

“In another week, your businesses, which you have earned in this land through the work of this people, will fall. And if he [the president] doesn’t listen to you, present him, as the chief commander of the armed forces, with a gun.”

The calls to force political change come as synagogues and Jewish schools around the country report rising vandalism and belligerence towards Jews as scapegoats for Ukraine’s problems, the newspaper said.