Kiev Truce Falls Apart, and Unrest Resurges
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Sergei Grits/Associated Press
Orthodox priests pray as they stand between protesters and the police in Kiev early Friday.
- Video Notebook: Kiev Cease-Fire Ends
Kiev Truce Falls Apart, and Unrest Resurges
Orthodox priests pray as they stand between protesters and the police in Kiev early Friday. Sergei Grits/Associated Press KIEV, Ukraine — With President Viktor F. Yanukovych and antigovernment demonstrators at an impasse here, a cease-fire disintegrated on Friday night as the Ukrainian capital convulsed in renewed violence and fire bombs lit up the night sky.Civil unrest spread across the country earlier on Friday as protesters laid siege to government buildings in at least nine other cities — occupying some and thronging outside others.The widening turmoil, in the central Ukrainian cities of Khmelnitsky, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy, as well as in the western strongholds of Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lutsk, Rivne and Chernivtsi, showed that the authorities, including the elite Berkut riot police and Interior Ministry troops, were outnumbered and at risk of being spread too thin.Ominously, the Interior Ministry said that a policeman had been shot to death in a neighborhood in southern Kiev, about 10 miles away from the main conflict zone. If connected to the civil unrest, it would be the first death of a law enforcement officer since protests began in late November.Video|0:43
Zurab Kurtsikidze/European Pressphoto AgencyKiev Cease-Fire Ends
David Herszenhorn reports from Kiev, Ukraine, where fighting has resumed between antigovernment protestors and the riot police, not far from the Dynamo soccer stadium.The ministry also said that three police officers had been attacked and taken hostage near Independence Square, which is occupied by demonstrators. It said one officer was stabbed and others were held in the Trade Unions building, which has served as an improvised headquarters for the opposition.An opposition leader supervising Independence Square denied that police officers had been taken captive, the Ukrainska Pravda news site reported.Officials say there are 3,000 to 4,000 specially trained Berkut officers, and an additional 8,000 to 9,000 Interior Ministry troops, deployed across the country. Throughout the now two-month uprising, there have often been many more protesters than that on the streets of Kiev. And some officers, particularly in the west, are believed to side with the opposition.Antigovernment protesters near a soccer stadium in Kiev on Friday. Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images In Rivne, demonstrators demanded that riot police units deployed to Kiev be sent home.In Kiev, efforts to defuse the crisis suffered a major setback as the police fired rubber bullets at protesters near the Dynamo soccer stadium shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Friday, while demonstrators hurled stones, firebombs and even firecrackers that exploded in a rainbow of colors — at times illuminating the clash with oddly festive plumes of light.In a scene that veered from primeval to apocalyptic, demonstrators used sticks to hit barrels and sheets of metal, creating a savage drumbeat as a backdrop, while billows of smoke rose from piles of burning car tires along a barrier made of bags of snow.Ukrainian cities with civilunrest and demonstrationsBELARUSPOLANDRUSSIALutskRivneZhytomyrTernopilKievLvivKhmelnitskyIvano-FrankivskCherkasyUKRAINEMOLDOVAChernivtsiROMANIABlackSea200 milesDuring a meeting with religious leaders in Kiev earlier in the day, Mr. Yanukovych had vowed to restore stability and expressed frustration that opposition leaders seemed unable to exert much influence over protesters who had clashed with the police this week.“I will do everything to stop this conflict, to stop violence and establish stability — certainly to stop radicals,” Mr. Yanukovych said during the meeting, according to a statement released by his office. “If we manage to stop them amicably, we will stop them amicably. Otherwise we will use all legal methods.”Mr. Yanukovych on Friday reiterated his offer of minimal concessions, which he described to opposition leaders during talks on Thursday night, and which they and demonstrators made clear they viewed as insufficient.Mr. Yanukovych said that all detained demonstrators not accused of serious crimes would be granted amnesty and released. He also said that he would consider a reorganization of the appointed government and that Parliament, at a special session on Tuesday, would consider changes to a package of legislation that his supporters rammed through last week and that broadly suppresses dissent.International concern also mounted on Friday. In Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum was underway, about 50 supporters of the Ukrainian protest movement urged European governments to freeze the assets of Ukrainian officials and impose sanctions.Some carried placards saying, “Thank you for your deep concern; now do something.”Oksana Lyachynska contributed reporting from Kiev, Andrew E. Kramer from Moscow, and Patrick Reevell from Davos, Switzerland.
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