You're reading: No blood but plenty of terror as police grapple for control (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Amid news that embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych would support a roundtable with opposition leaders to negotiate an end to a political stalemate here, riot police pushed protesters out of the government block, where they barricaded administrative buildings.

Although there were only minor
conflicts reported, Dec. 9 was psychologically exhausting for protesters
who spent the day alert and fearing attacks. But major physical crackdowns took place in the offices of Batkivshchyna, the biggest political party, and
several media outlets. 

Armed with automatic rifles, police confiscated servers
from Batkivshchyna offices, claiming that the move was backed by a court order. Law enforcement also raided the offices of Vechirni Visti newspaper, online TV station INTV and news website Cenzor.net.

Officials had
given protesters occupying central government buildings until today to evacuate
or face crackdowns. But by nightfall protesters remained camped inside the
Kyiv city hall and Trade Union buildings.

Law enforcement
did manage to regain a substantial amount of ground in the government district
of the city, dismantling many tents and barricades with barbed wire that
were set up over the past week by protesters. It was done without having to
use much physical force. Patiently and with shields, the police systematically drove back protesters to Independence Square.

Warnings that
police had been given orders to forcibly remove protesters from key locations around
central Independence Square, where several thousands have gathered in the past
three weeks, came all day. But very few clashes actually happened. Sporadic
scuffles were reported at various times, but no serious injuries.

Batkivschyna,
the party led by jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose case the
West considers to be political, and politician Arseniy Yatseniuk, got the worst of it, reporting that unknown men in uniforms and masks had ransacked their Kyiv base and
taken their computer servers.

A door to the Batkivschyna office after the raid by law enforcement.

Batkivschyna party office server, following a raid by special police forces.

“They’ve
turned the server room into a mess… Searches are under way and the doors of the
Batkivschyna Party’s office are being broken down,” Yatseniuk said at a
briefing. “No parliamentarians are let into the office. All the equipment
has been damaged.”

The country’s
Interior Ministry said a court, due to two criminal cases that involve alleged
fraud and abuse of office, sanctioned the attack on Batkivshchyna’s office.
They said a group of citizens reported to the police that a company, located on
19-B Turivska (an address close to Batkivshchyna offices) allegedly illegally
seized computer equipment worth Hr 350,000, Interfax-Ukraine news agency
reported. Moreover, they complained that officials from this company abused
their authority.

During the
search, computer equipment and documents were confiscated as evidence in a
criminal investigation, according to Interior Ministry officials.

Police actions
sparked outrage among protesters and the opposition, diminishing the chances
for a presidential roundtable to succeed in finding a solution out of the
current gridlock. Representatives of the opposition said that they would not
even consider negotiations until the government resigns, the police officers
responsible for violent crackdowns on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 are punished and
students and activists arrested after those clashes are allowed to go free.

The
European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton was scheduled to visit
Ukraine on Dec. 10 to encourage the two sides to seek compromise. U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was also set to visit, but by the
end of Monday it was not clear when.

Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected].