AFP: Two shot dead as Ukrainian police storm Kiev protest barricades
AFP: Two shot dead as Ukrainian police storm Kiev protest barricades
Kiev
— Two activists were shot dead as Ukrainian police stormed protesters'
barricades Wednesday in Kiev, the first fatalities in two months of
anti-government protests.
Hours after the deaths were reported,
police launched a fresh assault on the protesters in central Kiev,
driving into their lines using tear gas and stun grenades.
The protesters fought back in intense clashes, with casualties seen being loaded into ambulances.
The
deadly violence horrified Ukrainians, who have never witnessed such
scenes in their country including during the 2004 Orange Revolution
which was almost entirely peaceful.
The EU called for an immediate
end to the violence and the United States slapped visa restrictions on
Ukrainian officials it blamed for cracking down on protesters.
But Ukraine's prime minister labelled the radical protesters behind the clashes as "terrorists".
Wednesday's
deaths occurred during chaotic scenes as police marched through the
protesters' barricades shortly after 0600 GMT on Grushevsky Street in
Kiev, an AFP correspondent said.
New clashes broke out as the
police arrested protesters and created a large hole in barricades set up
behind the burned-out wrecks of destroyed police buses.
Protesters
hurled Molotov cocktails and stones while police responded with stun
grenades and fired rubber bullets, an AFP correspondent said.
General
prosecutors confirmed earlier information from the protest movement
that two activists had been shot dead, one of them with wounds to head
and chest.
Protesters claimed they were shot by police snipers but
this was not confirmed by the prosecutors who said the case was being
investigated.
Meanwhile, the medical centre of the protest
movement said a third activist was killed after falling from the top of
the ceremonial entrance to Dynamo Kiev stadium adjacent to the protests.
The
police, protected with helmets and riot shields, advanced some 50
metres (160 feet) towards the Dnipro Hotel which lies at the end of
Grushevsky Street.
Police then retreated back to their former positions before new clashes erupted.
Several
hundred protesters moved right up to the police line, before new
clashes broke out with police spraying tear gas and using shields to
protect themselves from stones thrown by protesters.
There was so
far no move by the police against the main protest camp on Independence
Square, several hundred metres away from the scene of the clashes.
Radical protesters are 'terrorists'
With
Ukraine supposedly celebrating its annual day of unity, President
Viktor Yanukovych prayed for the country at a ceremony to mark the
occasion, the presidency said.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Mykola
Azarov indicated that the government was in no mood for compromise,
savaging the behaviour of the protesters.
"The cynicism and
amorality of the terrorists has reached a point that they are throwing
Molotov cocktails right at living people," he told a cabinet meeting.
But
amid growing international concern, EU foreign policy chief Catherine
Ashton on Wednesday urged "an immediate end" to the escalating violence.
The
United States also revoked the visas of several Ukrainian nationals
linked to violence against protesters in November and December last
year, the US embassy said in a statement.
Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov warned on Tuesday that the situation in Ukraine was
spiralling out of control after the two months of protests over
Yanukovych's failure to sign a deal with the European Union.
The
government is basing its actions on a new set of laws, which ban nearly
all forms of protest in the ex-Soviet country and have enraged
demonstrators.
They allow for jail terms of up to five years for
those who blockade public buildings and the arrest of protesters wearing
masks or helmets.
Prominent activist 'kidnapped'
Meanwhile a
prominent Ukrainian activist and journalist, Igor Lutsenko, on Tuesday
said he was safe and well after being abducted from a hospital by
unknown individuals and dumped in a forest outside Kiev.
He wrote
on his Facebook page after being released that he had indeed been taken
from a hospital in Kiev and was eventually left in a forest by his
abductors after an ordeal lasting almost a day.
Protesters at the
scene of the clashes also said that they had received mysterious text
messages warning them that "dear subscriber, you have been registered as
a participant in mass disorders".
The opposition led by three
politicians including former world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko said
it was ready for dialogue but stressed it wanted to hold talks with
Yanukovych, not his aides.
The opposition leaders appeared unable
to have any influence on the hard core of radical protesters and stopped
short of supporting their actions.
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