02.12 Barricades Erected Overnight in Kiev after Weekend Clashes
KIEV, December 2 (RIA Novosti) – Protesters in the Ukrainian capital erected barricades early Monday morning after a weekend of violent clashes between police and demonstrators.
Tensions are simmering in the former Soviet nation amid increasingly vocal calls for the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in the wake of a decision to back away from closer integration with Europe.
According to reports from the scene, barricades made from Christmas trees, city benches, parts of metal fences and traffic barriers were erected in Kiev’s Independence Square, which served as the focal point of the Orange Revolution of 2004-5.
In a speech to the crowd at 2:00 a.m. local time, Ukrainian opposition leader and lawmaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk called on protesters not to leave the square.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched through downtown Kiev on Sunday in the largest show of discontent since Yanukovych’s refusal to sign a much-anticipated series of trade deals with the EU last month sparked a wave of largely peaceful rallies.
Ukraine’s government explained its about-face on the EU pact by saying that the country's economy would suffer and pledged instead to focus on strengthening ties with its neighbor Russia.
Demonstrations took a sour turn Saturday morning when police violently cleared Independence Square.
The violence continued Sunday afternoon as people attempted to storm the country’s presidential administration. Running battles saw protesters throwing rocks at police, who responded with tear gas and baton charges.
Ukrainian and Russian TV channels reported Sunday that protesters had managed to enter the city administration building, and showed footage of activists sitting in the building’s main meeting hall.
Another group of young people broke into the trade union headquarters in the center of Kiev, the UNIAN news agency reported.
City officials said Monday morning that almost 300 people had been injured in the violence, with 109 protestors and 53 police officers hospitalized.
EU and US ambassadors in Ukraine condemned the violence in a joint statement late Sunday, but said that they recognized that the majority of protests had been peaceful in nature.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called Sunday for both sides to avoid violence, and urged Ukraine to “fully abide by its international commitments to respect the freedom of expression and assembly.”
