Tensions remain high in Kiev as police dismantle protest barricades

Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich backed a call for talks with the opposition today to end weeks of protests in Kiev, but tension was high with pro-Europe demonstrators barricading their protest camp in preparation for police intervention.

As riot police took up new positions in the capital, heavyweight boxing champion-turned-opposition politician Vitaly Klitschko called on the protesters to stand their ground, and warned Mr Yanukovich that he would have blood on his hands if security forces tried to end the stand off violently.

Mr Klitschko later tweeted that some protest barricades were being taken down by police in a southern part of the city.

Across town, police dismantled protest tents to free the main road near the government hq and herded protesters back. But no clashes were reported. Reports say there were no attempts by police to move against the large encampment of protesters on Kiev’s Independence Square, focal point of the demonstration. Masked men with guns raided the party headquarters of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and took a computer server, said a spokeswoman who blamed the authorities.

With pressure growing on a shaky economy, the presidential website said Mr Yanukovich supported a proposal for round-table talks involving the authorities and the opposition as a possible “platform for mutual understanding”, the website said.

No date was given for when the reconciliation talks could be held. Nor was it clear what the united opposition’s reaction to Mr Yanukovich’s proposal would be.

But it was the first real sign by Mr Yanukovich - whose switch in trade policy away from the European Union towards Russia on November 21st provoked the unrest - that he might be ready to listen to opposition demands for the resignation of his government and early elections.

Despite his words, tension rose sharply on the streets after riot police units moved to take up their positions at potential flashpoints.

Demonstrators, responding to calls from opposition leaders, threw up new blocks in streets blanketed by snow after a heavy fall overnight to seal off their main protest camp on Independence Square.

“We call on people to stand their ground, and peacefully, without using force or aggression, to defend their right to live in a free country,” Mr Klitschko, who is increasingly being seen as a national leader-in-waiting, said.

“We are expecting the break-up by police of peaceful demonstrators. If blood is spilled during this dispersing (of protesters), this blood will be on the hands of the person who ordered it - ... Yanukovich,” he said.

State prosecutor Viktor Pshonka issued a tough warning to the demonstrators to end their blockade of road access to the presidential headquarters and government offices.

“If anybody thinks that he can, with these actions, bring anarchy and lawlessness into our country, then he should drop his illusions,” he said. “The law operates in our state.”

The protesters have been inflamed by a police crackdown on November 30th.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who spoke to Mr Yanukovich by phone yesterday, led Western calls today for authorities not to react violently. “Those young people in the streets of Ukraine in freezing temperatures are writing the new narrative for Europe,” he said in Milan.

“I’ve asked him (Yanukovich) to show restraint in the face of these recent developments, not to use force against people who are demonstrating peacefully, to respect fully their freedom.” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expects to meet Yanukovich and opposition leaders when she visits Kiev tomorow and Wednesday.

Mr Yanukovich’s sudden turn towards Russia has provoked the biggest street protests since the 2004-5 Orange Revolution, when people power forced a re-run of a fraud-tainted election and thwarted his first run for the presidency. On Sunday, several hundred thousand people turned out on Independence Square - focal point of the “orange” protests - calling for the government’s resignation and early elections.

The rally, which ended with a crowd toppling a statue of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin, followed talks on Friday between Yanukovich and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Neither side has yet given a detailed account of what was agreed at these talks, though Ukrainian prime minister Mykola Azarov said a “big agreement” had been reached.

Though most people believe Putin may have offered credits and a cheaper price for gas in return for dumping an EU trade pact, the secrecy surrounding the talks have only fuelled opposition suspicions that Yanukovich might be readying to take Ukraine into a Moscow-led customs union.

Reuters