Thick, dark smoke rose above the centre of the Ukrainian capital amid the boom of police stun grenades on Wednesday, as officers in riot gear sought to push demonstrators away from the city's main square following deadly clashes between police and protesters that left at least 25 people dead and hundreds injured and raised fears of a civil war.
After several hours of relative calm, confrontation flared up again Wednesday afternoon, with hundreds of police amassing on the edges of Independence Square, known as the Maidan, throwing stun grenades and using water cannons in a bid to disperse protesters.
Thousands of activists armed with fire bombs and rocks held their ground, defending the square which has been a bastion and symbol for the demonstrators.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday the Ukrainian government must be held accountable for violence security forces had used during protests.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich warned his opponents on Wednesday that he could deploy force against them after what he called their attempt to 'seize power' by means of 'arson and murder'. In a statement posted online in the early hours, Yanukovich stressed he had refrained from violence since unrest began and had persistently offered dialogue and possible elections. But he said he was being pressed by advisers to take a harder line.
'Without any mandate from the people, illegally and in breach of the constitution of Ukraine, these politicians - if I may use that term - have resorted to pogroms, arson and murder to try to seize power,' the president said. The government, clearly fearing the unrest could escalate to civil war, has sent troops to Kiev to guard arms depots, according to acting Ukraine Defence Minister Pavlo Lebedyev.
Police on Wednesday morning, protected by a barrier of shields, were destroying protesters' tents and anti-government posters on the eastern side of the square.
But protesters, many of them masked and in battle fatigues, were pouring onto the square from another direction and preparing to take on police for a second straight day.'We see that this regime again has begun shooting people; they want to sink Ukraine in blood. We will not give in to a single provocation,' opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the protesters on Tuesday. 'We will not take one step back from this square. We have nowhere to retreat to. Ukraine is behind us, Ukraine's future is behind us.'
The authorities have restricted traffic coming into the capital to prevent protesters from getting reinforcements. Kiev authorities also closed down the underground.
Earlier, the state security service set a deadline for the demonstrators to end disorder or face ‘tough measures’. Then the police advanced to the square before launching a full assault in the early hours, throwing stun grenades, firing what appeared to be small metal balls and using water cannons.
The coordinator for the opposition's medical response team, Oleh Musiy, said more than 400 protesters were injured. He also claimed that about 20 had died, but this could not independently be confirmed.
Nationwide demonstrations erupted in November after Yanukovich bowed to Russian pressure and pulled out of a planned far-reaching trade pact with the European Union, deciding instead to accept a Kremlin bailout for the heavily indebted economy.
Western powers warned Yanukovich against trying to smash the pro-European demonstrations, urging him to turn back to the European Union and the prospect of an IMF-supported economic recovery, while Russia accused them of meddling.
Ukraine has been rocked periodically by political turmoil since gaining independence from the Soviet Union more than 22 years ago, but it has never experienced violence on this scale. ‘We are now facing of one of the most dramatic episodes in Ukrainian history,’ opposition leader Yatsenyuk said in a video message after emergency talks with the president failed.
As the security forces moved forward, Klitschko, a former world champion boxer, reacted defiantly, telling supporters on the square: ‘We will not leave here. This is an island of freedom. We will defend it.’
Earlier on Tuesday, the State Security Service (SBU), in a joint statement with the Interior Ministry, signalled the government's intentions. ‘If by 6 p.m. the disturbances have not ended, we will be obliged to restore order by all means envisaged by law,’ they said. The riot police moved in hours after Moscow gave Ukraine $2 billion in aid for its crippled economy that it had been holding back as a carrot for crushing the protests.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said he had spoken to Ukraine's acting prime minister, who had given assurances that the authorities would try to avoid using live firearms.
‘For the sake of the Ukrainians and for the sake of the future of that country, I will pray that he is right,’ Fuele told a public event in Brussels.
A police spokeswoman gave a variety of reasons for the deaths including gunshot wounds, a traffic accident and heart attacks. One protester died in a fire.
Right Sector, a militant far-right group, added to tension by urging people holding weapons to go to Independence Square, also known as Maidan, to protect it from the security forces.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier telephoned his Ukrainian counterpart to warn against sliding back into violence and to urge the government to keep working for a political solution.
‘News of a fresh escalation of violence is alarming. We are shocked to hear of the dead and injured today,’ Steinmeier said in a statement, raising the possibility of EU sanctions against Ukrainian leaders. ‘Those responsible for taking any decisions that lead to the further spilling of blood must know that the reserve Europe has shown in terms of personal sanctions will be reconsidered.’
Monday's $2 billion cash injection, a resumption of a $15 billion aid package, was seen as a signal that Russia believed Yanukovich had a plan to end the protests and had dropped any idea of bringing opposition leaders into government.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have won the battle for influence in Ukraine for now, the protesters are not going quietly. The Kremlin is watching the upheaval in Ukraine 'attentively' but Russia is sticking to its policy of non-intervention, President Vladimir Putin's press secretary said on Wednesday.
Robert Brinkley, the UK’s ambassador to Ukraine from 2002 to 2006, told the BBC Today programme: ‘First of all I want to say my deepest sympathy to the families of those who been killed and all those injured in the last clashes. ‘This has roots which go back further than the last three months. Every Ukrainian government since independence in 1991 has accepted the importance of bringing Ukraine closer to the EU.
‘President Yanukovych said that when he was elected in 2002, so last November when his government suddenly announced they were suspending talks with the EU it came as a huge shock to a great many people in Ukraine.
Speaking of what the EU could have done to counter Russia’s overtures to Ukraine, he said: ‘Well what the European Union has been offering, and it’s still on the table, is the so-called deep and comprehensive trade agreement, which would give Ukraine access to the European Union’s single market. It’s eight times bigger than the Russian market.
‘They were offering Ukraine a route to modernisation of its economy – bigger markets and becoming a freer and better society.’ Sergei Bubka, the pole vault great who heads the Ukrainian Olympic Committee, urged both sides in Ukraine's political crisis to lay down their weapons and halt the violence that is bringing the country to 'the brink of catastrophe'.
'I'm ready to do everything I can to help the peaceful process,' Bubka said.
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