Smaller Protests Show Yanukovych Weakened?

Moon of Alabama

Can someone reconcile these two parts from a NYT report about Ukraine? First:

On Sunday, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Independence Square here in the capital, ... Rather than being placated by any of the concessions, the opposition has grown emboldened by the evidence that Mr. Yanukovych’s position has weakened.

So "tens of thousands" show that the president Yanukovych's position has "weakened". But what then is this further down in the piece?

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.

The protests are far smaller now but that is a sign that the president's position has weakened? How does that fit?
 
The attempts by the U.S. and the EU to now bribe Ukraine with more empty promises will not work.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Western powers were working on a financial plan for Ukraine whose numbers "won't be small" and won't hinge on Kiev first agreeing upon a long-term International Monetary Fund agreement, whose financial conditions Kiev has had difficulty complying with. However, she said the money was contingent on the new Ukrainian government pursuing economic and political reforms.
U.S. officials said the goal was to convince Mr. Yanukovych to make a series of political reforms, including appointing a "true" technocratic government that would then start to make the tough economic changes sought by the IMF.

It makes no economic sense for Ukraine, which depends on exports to Russia and on natural gas from Russia, to turn away from Russia and towards a predatory "west". Any IMF program, which would lend money just as Russia is willing to do but with much more destructive conditions, would likely be very harsh for the people. They know this and are not willing to give in.

The U.S. and the EU are inciting the hard-rightwing and fascist "opposition" in Ukraine. The western darling Klitchko has called for the creation of "self-defense groups". One hopes that this call will be ignored like his previous two calls for a general strike which no one followed.