ANTI-GOVERNMENT protesters have clashed violently with police in central Kiev after Moscow moved to cement its influence over Ukraine with £1.2 billion in cash to shore up the former Soviet state's heavily indebted economy.
At least 18 people, including seven policemen were killed and dozens injured after riot squads moved in to clear protesters from the centre of Independence Square using water cannon.
Several thousand protesters torched vehicles and hurled stones in the worst violence to rock the capital in more than three weeks.
Many were killed by gunshot and hundreds more were injured, with dozens of them in a serious condition.
Police steadily gained ground but thousands of protesters held on to the centre. They responded with petrol bombs, fireworks and stones. TV footage showed police throwing stun grenades at the protesters separated from them by a line of burning tents, tyres and wood.
One of the opposition's leaders, Vitaly Klitschko told them: "We will not leave here. This is an island of freedom. We will defend it."
Last night a building used by anti-government protesters as its headquarters was ablaze. People were seen leaping from the nine-storey block.
Moscow's massive cash injection, a resumption of a £12bn aid package, was seen as signal Russia believed President Viktor Yanukovich had a plan to bring street demonstrations under control and had scrapped plans to bring opposition leaders into government.
However, as protesters and police battled on the streets, Moscow said the escalation was a "direct result of connivance by Western politicians and European structures that have shut their eyes to the aggressive actions of radical forces".
Russia had seemingly won a struggle for influence over Ukraine with the West with its fiscal package that helped persuade Mr Yanukovich to snub a trade deal with the European Union in November.
However, protesters who have claimed the centre of the capital as their own are not going quietly.
Mr Klitschko, a world champion boxer-turned politician later arrived at Yanukovich's office for late night talks but he and another opposition leader, former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, were still waiting to see the president an hour later.
Earlier 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.
Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser and political analyst in Moscow, said: "I think Russia received some kind of assurances from the Kiev leadership and Mr Yanukovich showed he would stick firmly by his position in talks, he would not make excessive concessions, he would fight the radicals who are getting stronger in the opposition and that the (new) prime minister would not be a member of the opposition."
But rather than boosting Mr Yanukovich, Moscow's move may have helped trigger a more violent turn in the protests, especially from those demonstrators who have a strong anti-Kremlin agenda.
Police fired rubber bullets and stun and smoke grenades from trucks and from the tops of buildings, forcing the protesters back by about 100 metres.
Right Sector, a militant far-right group, added to tension by calling on people holding weapons to go to Independence Square, centre of the revolt, to protect it from a possible move by security forces to break it up.
The protesters had marched to the parliament building to press the opposition leaders' calls for Mr Yanukovich to relinquish power.
US Vice President Joe Biden last night called Mr Yanukovich to express grave concern at the rising violence and to urge him to pull back government forces and exercise maximum restraint.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article