in protest of "President Yanukovych's reluctance to sign the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement". A 26 November 2013 statement by Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov saying "I affirm with full authority that the negotiating process over the Association Agreement is continuing, and the work on moving our country closer to European standards is not stopping for a single day" did not appease protesters who blockaded the government building during the cabinet session during which Azarov made the above-mentioned statement. The same day the city of Kyiv installed a heating tent (hot tea and sandwiches were served) at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, where about 2,000 students were rallying. According to Kyiv Post this was part of a "Ukrainian authorities' attempt to portray themselves as allies with the demonstrators who, in many cases, are calling for the government to resign if it doesn't sign an association agreement with the European Union this week". The same day it was reported that social media accounts of protesters were being hacked and disreputable messages being posted in place of rally news and commentary. On 26 and 27 November 2013 Lithuanian Parliament Speaker Loreta Graužinienė and Polish Sejm Member Marcin Święcicki spoke to the protesters at Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Musical acts like Ruslana put on performances for demonstrators on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. On 27 November it was reported that the Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute staff allegedly checked class attendance, threatening truant students who attend the pro-EU rallies in Kyiv with expulsion. In other universities, administrators forbade students from joining pro-EU protests, posting political commentary to social media networks, and wearing Ukraine-EU ribbons. According to Euronews the protesters in Kyiv numbered ten thousand people, many of them students. At noon of 28 November (the eighth day of protests) about 3,000 people gathered on Maidan Nezalezhnosti; no party symbols were reported, only Ukrainian flags and European Union flags. The crowd grew to 4,000 by the evening while it was again entertained by popular Ukrainian artists. On 29 November 2013, it became clear that Ukraine did not sign the Association Agreement at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius. The number of protesters in Kyiv swelled to 10,000. In Lviv, protesters numbered some 20,000. As in Kyiv the Lviv protesters locked hands in a human chain, symbolically linking Ukraine to the European Union (organizers claimed that some 100 people even crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border to extend the chain to the European Union). Euronews reported