Protesters stand behind burning barricades during a face-off against police on February 20, 2014 in Kiev.
Kiev, Ukraine:
Armed protesters stormed police barricades in Kiev on Thursday, leaving at least one person dead and shattering a fragile truce as EU foreign ministers called off a crisis meeting with the embattled Ukrainian president.
Masked protesters pelted Molotov cocktails and rocks at thick lines of armed anti-riot troops in Kiev's central Independence Square, the epicentre of the ex-Soviet country's three-month-old political crisis.
The demonstrators managed to push police forces back some 200 metres to retake control of the entire square, which anti-government protesters have occupied since November.
Police used rubber bullets to try and repel the attack and claimed that a sniper had wounded 20 officers by firing live ammunition from the window of a building overlooking the smoke-filled square.
Live ammunition was used in the fresh clashes, according to an AFP photographer who saw spent cartridge shells littering the ground, though it was unclear who had used the rounds.
The clashes shattered a truce that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych called with the opposition just hours earlier, following a spurt of violence that killed more than two dozen people in less than two days.
Yanukovych was due to hold crisis talks with foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland in Kiev on Thursday, but the envoys called off the encounter over "security."
"The meeting was not held for security reasons and has been cancelled. The entire centre of Kiev is not safe," a Western official told AFP.
Earlier France had announced that the European Union was preparing to impose sanctions against the Ukrainian government for the violence at an emergency meeting in Brussels later on Thursday.
Yanukovych has appeared to struggle to formulate a clear policy over the past several days, which have seen Ukraine's deadliest violence since independence and an escalating war of words between the West and former master Moscow over the future of the country sandwiched between the EU and Russia.
Death toll climbs
Following Thursday's clashes, an AFP reporter saw the body of one protester with apparent gunshot wounds brought into the lobby of a hotel close to Independence Square. At least 10 others were wounded.
Prior to the fresh clashes, Ukraine's health ministry said the violence had claimed 28 lives since Tuesday, with nearly 300 hospitalised.
The crisis was initially ignited by Yanukovych's shock decision in November to ditch an historic EU trade and political association agreement in favour of closer ties with Kiev's historic masters in the Kremlin.
But it has since evolved into a much broader anti-government movement that has swept through both the pro-Western west of the country as well as parts of its more Russified east.
Yanukovych had appeared to show resolve on Wednesday afternoon to end the crisis after the country's security services announced plans to launch a sweeping "anti-terror" operation and he sacked the army's top general -- a powerful figure lauded by the opposition for refusing to back the use of force against those who had come out on the street.
But he then received three top protest leaders and told them he would take no immediate action against those who have taken to the streets against his rule.
The charismatic boxer-turned-lawmaker Vitali Klitschko said in his own statement that Yanukovych had issued a promise not to order police to storm the main protest square.
"In essence, we are talking about a truce," Klitschko said. "Now we will see whether after all the threats of Western sanctions, Yanukovych intends to keep his word."
US President Barack Obama for his part noted with caution that a truce between the government and its street foes would be welcome "if implemented".
Russia, West at odds
The crackdown on protesters triggered a storm of condemnation from the West while the Kremlin denounced an "attempted coup" by the demonstrators.
The US State Department announced it was imposing visa bans on about 20 senior Ukrainian officials "complicit in or responsible for ordering or otherwise directing human rights abuses."
Western pressure was set to mount still further on Thursday when the European Union considers its own measures during a meeting in Brussels.
Ahead of that meeting, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Europe 1 shortly before the meeting that he would tell Yanukovych "that he must stop the violence, which is obviously unacceptable, and that we are preparing this afternoon to take sanctions against those responsible for the violence."
Moscow meanwhile has issued a string of outraged comments condemning both the protesters and the West.
President Vladimir Putin's spokesman placed all responsibility for the unprecedented violence on "extremists (whose) actions can be seen and are seen in Moscow exclusively as an attempted coup d'etat".
NATO alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen countered that he would "strongly urge the Ukrainian government to refrain from further violence" - a comment that appeared to hold Yanukovych personally responsible for the unrest.
Russia also announced that it was sending Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin - a policy hawk who is widely known for his strongly nationalist views - to Kiev on Thursday in order to "give a corresponding impulse to our relations" with Ukraine.
Masked protesters pelted Molotov cocktails and rocks at thick lines of armed anti-riot troops in Kiev's central Independence Square, the epicentre of the ex-Soviet country's three-month-old political crisis.
The demonstrators managed to push police forces back some 200 metres to retake control of the entire square, which anti-government protesters have occupied since November.
Police used rubber bullets to try and repel the attack and claimed that a sniper had wounded 20 officers by firing live ammunition from the window of a building overlooking the smoke-filled square.
Live ammunition was used in the fresh clashes, according to an AFP photographer who saw spent cartridge shells littering the ground, though it was unclear who had used the rounds.
The clashes shattered a truce that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych called with the opposition just hours earlier, following a spurt of violence that killed more than two dozen people in less than two days.
Yanukovych was due to hold crisis talks with foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland in Kiev on Thursday, but the envoys called off the encounter over "security."
"The meeting was not held for security reasons and has been cancelled. The entire centre of Kiev is not safe," a Western official told AFP.
Earlier France had announced that the European Union was preparing to impose sanctions against the Ukrainian government for the violence at an emergency meeting in Brussels later on Thursday.
Yanukovych has appeared to struggle to formulate a clear policy over the past several days, which have seen Ukraine's deadliest violence since independence and an escalating war of words between the West and former master Moscow over the future of the country sandwiched between the EU and Russia.
Death toll climbs
Following Thursday's clashes, an AFP reporter saw the body of one protester with apparent gunshot wounds brought into the lobby of a hotel close to Independence Square. At least 10 others were wounded.
Prior to the fresh clashes, Ukraine's health ministry said the violence had claimed 28 lives since Tuesday, with nearly 300 hospitalised.
The crisis was initially ignited by Yanukovych's shock decision in November to ditch an historic EU trade and political association agreement in favour of closer ties with Kiev's historic masters in the Kremlin.
But it has since evolved into a much broader anti-government movement that has swept through both the pro-Western west of the country as well as parts of its more Russified east.
Yanukovych had appeared to show resolve on Wednesday afternoon to end the crisis after the country's security services announced plans to launch a sweeping "anti-terror" operation and he sacked the army's top general -- a powerful figure lauded by the opposition for refusing to back the use of force against those who had come out on the street.
But he then received three top protest leaders and told them he would take no immediate action against those who have taken to the streets against his rule.
The charismatic boxer-turned-lawmaker Vitali Klitschko said in his own statement that Yanukovych had issued a promise not to order police to storm the main protest square.
"In essence, we are talking about a truce," Klitschko said. "Now we will see whether after all the threats of Western sanctions, Yanukovych intends to keep his word."
US President Barack Obama for his part noted with caution that a truce between the government and its street foes would be welcome "if implemented".
Russia, West at odds
The crackdown on protesters triggered a storm of condemnation from the West while the Kremlin denounced an "attempted coup" by the demonstrators.
The US State Department announced it was imposing visa bans on about 20 senior Ukrainian officials "complicit in or responsible for ordering or otherwise directing human rights abuses."
Western pressure was set to mount still further on Thursday when the European Union considers its own measures during a meeting in Brussels.
Ahead of that meeting, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Europe 1 shortly before the meeting that he would tell Yanukovych "that he must stop the violence, which is obviously unacceptable, and that we are preparing this afternoon to take sanctions against those responsible for the violence."
Moscow meanwhile has issued a string of outraged comments condemning both the protesters and the West.
President Vladimir Putin's spokesman placed all responsibility for the unprecedented violence on "extremists (whose) actions can be seen and are seen in Moscow exclusively as an attempted coup d'etat".
NATO alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen countered that he would "strongly urge the Ukrainian government to refrain from further violence" - a comment that appeared to hold Yanukovych personally responsible for the unrest.
Russia also announced that it was sending Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin - a policy hawk who is widely known for his strongly nationalist views - to Kiev on Thursday in order to "give a corresponding impulse to our relations" with Ukraine.
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