3 protesters dead in battleground Kiev
23 Jan 2014 5:53 AM IST
Police launched the first assault against stone-throwing protesters in the morning, marching forwards as a military formation clad in body armour with their shields in front.
Protesters stepped up their attacks, flinging stones and Molotov cocktails but could do little against the tear gas and stun grenades used by the elite Berkut riot police who also fired rubber bullets.
Hundreds of hardcore protesters regrouped after being pushed from the main scene of the clashes, burning tyres in a bid to create a new barricade and filling the air with rancid black smoke.
Further raising the stakes, police then moved an armoured personnel carrier into the protest zone.
The capital, which successfully hosted the final of the Euro 2012 football championships, was turned into a virtual war zone as demonstrators scattered, chased by security forces.
The street cafes on Kiev's famed Khreshchatyk Avenue nearby were all closed as the clashes intensified.
22 January is supposed to be the country's day of national unity, remembering the unification of western and eastern Ukraine in an attempt at independence during the turbulence of 1919.
However Ukrainians seemed less unified than ever amid the carnage on the street with the mainstream opposition leaders apparently having lost any authority over the most radical protesters.
Two protesters were confirmed shot dead in the morning but the casualty toll risks rising after ambulances rushed injured activists to treatment.
The clashes were restricted to an area in the centre of the capital centred on Grushevsky Street, the scene of three days of violence that have raised tensions from two months of protests to a new peak.
So far, the security forces have not moved against the main protest camp on Independence Square in Kiev, known locally as the Maidan.
Protesters stepped up their attacks, flinging stones and Molotov cocktails but could do little against the tear gas and stun grenades used by the elite Berkut riot police who also fired rubber bullets.
Hundreds of hardcore protesters regrouped after being pushed from the main scene of the clashes, burning tyres in a bid to create a new barricade and filling the air with rancid black smoke.
Further raising the stakes, police then moved an armoured personnel carrier into the protest zone.
The capital, which successfully hosted the final of the Euro 2012 football championships, was turned into a virtual war zone as demonstrators scattered, chased by security forces.
The street cafes on Kiev's famed Khreshchatyk Avenue nearby were all closed as the clashes intensified.
22 January is supposed to be the country's day of national unity, remembering the unification of western and eastern Ukraine in an attempt at independence during the turbulence of 1919.
However Ukrainians seemed less unified than ever amid the carnage on the street with the mainstream opposition leaders apparently having lost any authority over the most radical protesters.
Two protesters were confirmed shot dead in the morning but the casualty toll risks rising after ambulances rushed injured activists to treatment.
The clashes were restricted to an area in the centre of the capital centred on Grushevsky Street, the scene of three days of violence that have raised tensions from two months of protests to a new peak.
So far, the security forces have not moved against the main protest camp on Independence Square in Kiev, known locally as the Maidan.
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