EU's top diplomat in Ukraine as tension rises on the barricades

Ukrainian riot police have torn down some tents and barricades erected by anti-government protesters and stormed the offices of the country’s main opposition party, as the EU dispatched its top diplomat to Kiev to try to defuse the rising tension.

Hundreds of riot police marched on a protest camp near government headquarters last night, clearing the area and forcing its occupants towards Independence Square, the heart of the protest movement, where thousands of people gathered again despite heavy snowfall.

Riot police also raided the offices of the party loyal to jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, saying they were looking for evidence of fraud.

Masked men
Party officials said the armed, masked men smashed doors, damaged equipment and removed computer servers. Party leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the raid cast doubt on the sincerity of Mr Yanukovich's earlier announcement that he was willing to hold talks with the opposition.

Protesters came out in force after Mr Yanukovich scrapped plans to sign a historic pact with the EU late last month that would have tilted Ukraine away from Russia. He said Moscow's threatened trade retaliation could have crippled the economy of his country of 46 million people.

Public anger at Mr Yanukovich and his government soared, however, when riot police set upon peaceful protesters – most of them students – and beat dozens of journalists last weekend.

For two consecutive Sundays, hundreds of thousands of people have rallied on Independence Square, to demand that the riot police and their political bosses are punished, Mr Yanukovich and his government resign, and Ukraine reject Russia and tie its future to the EU.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is expected today in Kiev, as a police deadline expires for protesters to end their occupation of city hall and a trade union building near Independence Square.

“We are ready for anything,” said Andrei Bodnar, as he instructed a group of young men in the doorway of city hall on how to resist a raid by riot police, who parked buses and formed a cordon near the building yesterday morning.

City hall has been declared the “revolutionary headquarters”, and hundreds of people go there every day to eat, sleep, warm up and share news.

Activists evacuated the building of all those who were not willing to face a “storm”, leaving inside dozens of men, many of them students, to reinforce barricades, don a motley array of cyclists’ and builders’ helmets, and grab broomsticks, furniture legs and metal rods for weapons.

'Preparing for worse'
"We are patriots, defending peaceful protesters," said one of them, Sergei Kononko.

Tamara Karabovich was preparing first-aid kits and a medical area for possible casualties. “I’ve been here for six days, we work in shifts,” she said. “So far we’ve been treating coughs and colds. But we’re preparing for much worse now, if they storm the building.”

Outside, on the snowy steps of city hall, people sang the Ukrainian anthem. Later, a priest moved among the riot police, giving them blessings, while girls took them trays of sandwiches and biscuits, and tied ribbons of yellow and blue – the colours of the Ukrainian flag – around their arms.

“We hope for victory,” said Ms Karabovich, “a peaceful victory.”