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 Dozens of riot police removed barricades leading to the
presidency, cabinet offices and parliament. But the demonstrators,
who reject President Viktor Yanukovich's policy lurch towards
Russia, have regrouped at Independence Square in central Kiev, where
they have set up a makeshift tent village.
With the crisis weighing on an economy already on the brink of
bankruptcy, the cost of insuring Ukrainian debt rose to the highest
in four years on Tuesday, and bond prices fell sharply.
Yanukovich is due to hold talks with three former Ukrainian
presidents to try and find a basis for wider talks involving the
opposition parties.
In a flurry of diplomacy highlighting the struggle between East and
West over Ukraine, which scrapped a trade pact with Europe last
month and opted to rebuild ties with Moscow instead, U.S. assistant
secretary of state Victoria Nuland flew to Kiev.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was also due to
arrive later on Tuesday and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke to
Yanukovich by telephone.
Nuland went to see leaders of the three main opposition parties, the
opposition said. Other details of her program and whether she would
meet Yanukovich were not immediately known.
Demonstrators had feared the arrival of the riot police on Monday
heralded a plan to crush the protests, but there was none of the
violence seen a week earlier, when dozens of protesters were wounded
in clashes.
Ilya Shutov, an ex-miner from the eastern city of Donetsk, said the
protesters would stay until Yanukovich left office.
"We were for the EU association agreement because we thought it
would force our authorities to be civilized. Their refusal of Europe
is a refusal to be civilized," he said.
"Our goal is to get rid of the Soviet-like authorities."
Nuland arrived in Kiev from talks in Moscow, where the U.S. embassy
said she expressed "deep concern" about the situation in
Ukraine and urged Russia to use its influence to press for "peace,
human dignity and a political solution."
"The U.S. supports Ukraine's European choice, a non-violent and just
political resolution to the current standoff, and a return to
economic health with the support of the International Monetary
Fund," it said.
Biden told Yanukovich by telephone on Monday that there was a "need
to immediately de-escalate the situation and begin a dialogue with
opposition leaders on developing a consensus way forward for
Ukraine."
"He noted that violence has no place in a democratic society and is
incompatible with our strategic relationship," a White House
statement said.
Russia's lower house of parliament was expected to approve a
statement rejecting interference in Ukraine by Western politicians,
following a visit to the protests last week by Germany's foreign
minister.
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MASS PROTESTS
In Kiev, liberals and nationalists alike have taken to the streets
for demonstrations, and thousands have maintained an
around-the-clock protest camp in the city centre, blocked roads,
besieged government buildings and occupied the capital's city hall.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched on Sunday, the second
weekend in a row that huge crowds have vented fury at a government
they accuse of returning Ukraine to Kremlin control. In a potent
symbol, they tore down and smashed the capital's main statue of
Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union.
A week earlier, baton-wielding police injured scores of people at
similar demonstrations. The police have since held back from using
force to dislodge the protesters, but gave them five days from last
Thursday to leave the streets.
The protesters say they will not go.
"We will stand here till the end to defend our rights," said Sergei
Kuzan, 29, a lawyer, part of a self-appointed security team ready to
defend barricades at the main tented camp in Kiev's central
Independence Square. "My task is not to let the police through, nor
the provocateurs."
The tented vigil in freezing temperatures copies a tactic from the
"Orange Revolution" in 2004 which successfully overturned a
fraudulent election victory by Yanukovich.
Ukraine's dire finances have both provoked the crisis and been
worsened by it. EU leaders say their trade pact would have brought
investment, but Ukraine's Soviet-era industry relies on Russian
natural gas, giving the Kremlin enormous leverage.
Kiev is due to pay just under $4 billion in debt repayments and
Russian gas bills in the first three months of 2014. Its foreign
reserves have been eroded to prop up the local hryvnia currency.
Central Bank figures on Friday revealed only enough foreign currency
on hand for less than two months of imports.
Yanukovich met Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, raising
opposition suspicions that Yanukovich agreed to bring the country of
46 million into a Moscow-led customs union of ex-Soviet states.
Moscow and Kiev deny this was discussed.
(Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets, Alissa de Carbonnel,
Elizabeth Piper, Gareth Jones, writing by Elizabeth Piper and
Richard Balmforth; editing by Will Waterman)
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