Fresh fighting broke out in central Kiev on Thursday, shattering a truce declared by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, as the Russian-backed leader met European ministers demanding he compromise with pro-EU opponents.
A Reuters photographer
saw the bodies of 21 dead civilians in Independence Square, a few
hundred meters (yards) from where the president met the EU delegation,
after protesters who have occupied the area for almost three months
hurled petrol bombs and paving stones to drive riot police out of the
plaza.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France
and Poland were to report back in Brussels later in the day to EU
colleagues, who will decide on possible targeted sanctions against those
deemed responsible for the bloodshed. Russia criticized the European
and U.S. measures, saying they would only make matters worse.
A
Ukrainian presidential statement said dozens of police were killed or
wounded during the opposition offensive hours after Yanukovich and
opposition leaders had agreed on a truce. Witnesses said they saw
snipers firing during the clashes. The Health Ministry said two police
were among Thursday’s dead.
That
raised the total death toll since Tuesday to at least 51, including at
least 12 police – by far the bloodiest hours of Ukraine’s 22-year
post-Soviet history. Local media said more than 30 protesters were
killed in Thursday’s flare-up.
The
country is the object of a geopolitical tug-of-war between Moscow,
which sees it as the historical cradle of Russian civilization, and the
West, which says Ukrainians should be free to choose economic
rapprochement with the EU.
The
renewed fighting, which subsided after about an hour, heightened
concern voiced by neighboring Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk that
Ukraine could descend into civil war or split between the pro-European
West and Russian-speaking east.
The
EU ministers’ meeting with Yanukovich was delayed for security reasons
but began an hour late. They expected to present him with a mixture of
sanctions and enticements to make a deal with his opponents that could
end the bloodshed.
A
statement from Yanukovich’s office said: “They (the protesters) are
working in organized groups. They are using firearms, including sniper
rifles. They are shooting to kill.
“The number of dead and injured among police officers is dozens,” the statement on the presidential website said.
Opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko said on Sky TV: “As we can see the truce has broken.”
Television showed activists in combat fatigues leading several captured, uniformed policemen across the square.
POLICE OFFICERS CAPTURED
Activists
who recaptured the square, known as Maidan or “Euro-Maidan” to the
opposition, appeared to lead away several uniformed officers. Dozens of
wounded protesters were being given makeshift first aid treatment in the
lobby of the Ukraine Hotel, where many foreign correspondents are
staying.
Reporters said
there were bullet holes in the walls and windows of the hotel
overlooking the square. Both sides have accused the other of using live
ammunition.
“Black smoke,
denotations and gunfire around presidential palace … Officials
panicky,” tweeted Polish minister Radoslaw Sikorski to explain the delay
in the meeting at Yanukovich’s office, a few hundred meters from the
square.
Pro-EU activists
have been keeping vigil there since the president turned his back on a
trade pact with the bloc in November and accepted financial aid from
Moscow.
Russia, which has
been holding back a new loan installment until it sees stability in
Kiev, has condemned EU and U.S. support of the opposition demands that
Yanukovich, elected in 2010, should share power and hold new elections.
In
an apparent criticism of Yanukovich’s handling of the crisis, Russian
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that Moscow could only
cooperate fully with Ukraine when its leadership was in “good shape”,
Interfax news agency said.
The
crisis in the sprawling country of 46 million with an ailing economy
and endemic corruption has mounted since Yanukovich, under pressure from
the Kremlin, took a $15-billion Russian bailout instead of a
wide-ranging deal with the EU.
The
United States stepped up pressure on Wednesday by imposing travel bans
on 20 senior Ukrainian officials, and European Union foreign ministers
are due to meet in Brussels later on Thursday to consider similar
measures.
A statement on
Yanukovich’s website announced an accord late on Wednesday with
opposition leaders for “the start to negotiations with the aim of ending
bloodshed, and stabilizing the situation in the state in the interest
of social peace”.
Responding
cautiously, U.S. President Barack Obama deemed the truce a “welcome
step forward”, but said he would monitor the situation closely to
“ensure that actions mirror words”.
“Our
approach in the United States is not to see these as some Cold War
chessboard in which we’re in competition with Russia,” Obama said after a
North American summit in Mexico.
At
Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi some members of Ukraine’s team have
decided to leave because of the violence at home, the International
Olympic Committee said on Thursday.
COMBATIVE MOOD
Protesters
were in a truculent mood despite the overnight lull and columns of men,
bearing clubs and chanting patriotic songs headed to Independence
Square at 8:30 a.m. (0130 ET).
“What
truce? There is no truce! It is simply war ahead of us! They are
provoking us. They throw grenades at us. Burn our homes. We have been
here for three months and during that time nothing burned,” said
23-year-old Petro Maksimchuk.
“These are not people. They are killers. Sanctions will not help. They all should be sent into isolation in Siberia.”
Serhiy,
a 55-year-old from the western city of Lviv who declined to give his
surname, added: “It is bad that Ukraine is already broken into two
parts. In the west the police and army are with us but in the east, they
are against us.
“It is the ‘Yanukovichers’ who are dividing us.”
In
Lviv, a bastion of Ukrainian nationalism since Soviet times, the
regional assembly declared autonomy from Yanukovich and his
administration, which many west Ukrainians see as much closer to Moscow
and to Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east.
Yanukovich,
who replaced the head of the armed forces, had denounced the bloodshed
in central Kiev as an attempted coup. His security service said launched
a nationwide “anti-terrorist operation” after arms and ammunition dumps
were looted.
The EU
ministers were expected to consider a series of possible steps including
asset freezes and travel bans, even though diplomats doubt the are
effective.
Jumping out
ahead of its EU allies, Washington imposed U.S. visa bans on 20
government officials it considered “responsible for ordering human
rights abuses related to political oppression”, a State Department
official said.
“These
individuals represent the full chain of command we consider responsible
for ordering the security forces to move against” the protesters, the
official said.
EU officials said Yanukovich himself would be excluded from such measures in order to keep channels of dialogue open.
Diplomats
said the threat of sanctions could also target assets held in the West
by Ukrainian business oligarchs who have either backed Yanukovich or are
sitting on the fence.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin, who has met Yanukovich six times since the
crisis began, has kept quiet on the flare-up. But Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov blamed the West for inciting opposition radicals and
called the threat of sanctions blackmail.
Ukraine’s
hryvnia currency, flirting with its lowest levels since the global
financial crisis five years ago, weakened again on Thursday.
Possibly
due to the risk of sanctions, three of Ukraine’s richest magnates have
stepped up pressure on Yanukovich to hold back from using force.
“There
are no circumstances which justify the use of force toward the peaceful
population,” steel and coal magnate Rinat Akhmetov, who bankrolled
Yanukovich’s 2010 election campaign said in a statement late on Tuesday.
(Additional
reporting by Natalya Zinets, Pavel Polityuk and Alessandra Prentice in
Kiev; Writing by Richard Balmforth and Paul Taylor; Editing by Alastair
MacDonald)
