5 killed as Ukraine forces set deadline
Print Edition
Ukrainian riot police advanced on the heart of 12-week-old protests against President Viktor Yanukovich yesterday and security forces set a deadline to end disturbances after at least five protesters were reported killed in a day of clashes.
Forces loyal to the president broke through front-line barricades near the Dynamo Kiev soccer stadium and marched to the edge of occupied Independence Square hours after Moscow gave Ukraine US$2 billion in aid it had been holding back to demand decisive action to crush the pro-European protests.
Clashes raged for several hours outside the parliament building, where opposition lawmaker Lesya Orobets said three demonstrators were killed and taken to a nearby officers’ club used as a medical center. More than 100 people were injured, she said.
A photographer reported seeing two more bodies.
The casualty reports could not be independently confirmed.
The State Security Service (SBU), in a joint statement with the interior ministry, set protesters a 6pm deadline to end street disorder or face “tough measures.”
“If by 6pm the disturbances have not ended, we will be obliged to restore order by all means envisaged by law,” the statement said.
The defence ministry issued a separate warning to protesters to evacuate the officers’ club.
Nationwide protests against Yanukovich erupted in November after he bowed to Russian pressure and pulled out of a planned far-reaching trade agreement with the European Union, deciding instead to accept a Kremlin bailout for the former Soviet republic’s heavily indebted economy.
As protesters and police battled on the streets of Kiev, Russia called the escalation a “direct result of connivance by Western politicians and European structures that have shut their eyes ... to the aggressive actions of radical forces.”
Several thousand protesters torched vehicles and hurled stones in the worst violence to rock the capital Kiev in more than three weeks.
Police replied by firing rubber bullets and stun and smoke grenades from trucks and from the tops of buildings, forcing protesters back 100 meters.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
