No Ukraine talks, only clashes
Confrontations continue between protesters and riot police. More than 200 are reported injured.
KIEV, Ukraine — Promised talks aimed at resolving two months of unrest failed to materialize Monday as antigovernment protesters clashed with riot police in Ukraine’s capital for a second day, with more than 200 people reported injured.
The violence in Kiev follows weeks of largely peaceful demonstrations against President Viktor Yanukovich’s decision not to sign a free-trade and association deal with the European Union, choosing instead to pursue closer ties with Russia.
At least 61 police officers and 42 protesters have been hospitalized since Sunday, officials said. The injured include at least 15 journalists, news reports said.
The charred remains of police buses sat under layers of glistening ice Monday morning in central Kiev’s Grushevsky Street, which leads to the government complex that houses parliament and the Council of Ministers.
Masked and helmeted protesters, some of them wearing gas masks, took cover behind the destroyed vehicles and threw bricks, cobblestones, flares and Molotov cocktails at lines of riot police protecting themselves with shields about 50 yards away.
When the attackers, who numbered in the hundreds, would retreat, police would pick up some of the stones and Molotov cocktails and toss them back while firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets. The pattern was repeated, with little variation, throughout the day, as several thousand bystanders looked on and the casualties mounted.
The security presence grew as reinforcements arrived from other cities and towns.
Ukrainian media reported that crowds of protesters in cities such as Odessa, Lviv and IvanoFrankivsk blocked roads in an attempt to prevent local riot police units from going to Kiev.
The clashes erupted Sunday as tens of thousands of opposition demonstrators took to the streets in response to new security measures aimed at curbing protests.
The controversial measures, which Yanukovich signed into law Friday, prohibit the erection of tents, stages, sound equipment and other objects that can hinder movement in public areas. The new laws provide for hefty fines and up to 15 years in prison for violators. sergei.loiko@latimes.com Special correspondent Butenko reported from Kiev and Times staff writer Loiko from Moscow.