Battalions of Ukrainian security forces early Wednesday stormed Independence Square, the central plaza in Kyiv where protesters had been rallying against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych for more than two weeks.
Hours after senior Western diplomats arrived here for meetings with Yanukovych in an effort to defuse both the country’s slide into political chaos and a deepening financial crisis, thousands of riot police officers and Internal Ministry troops fanned across Kyiv, putting the Ukrainian capital in a virtual lockdown in the cold predawn darkness.
