Ukrainian authorities decide to meet with opposition; street barricades are removed

Tuesday media reports say police moved in on protesters in Ukraine’s capital, breaking up the last of their street barricades near Ukraine’s parliament and presidential administration building.

The movement of police in the Ukrainian capital Monday coincided with a statement from President Viktor Yanukovich in which he expressed his support for an initiative by former Ukrainian president Leonid Kravchuk to hold a roundtable with representatives from both the opposition and the authorities.

Yanukovich also said he would meet with Kravchuk and fellow former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday, RIA Novosti reports. Yanukovich’s three predecessors issued a statement last week expressing their support for peaceful rallies.

Protesters in Kiev have built a tent camp in Independence Square and barricaded public buildings in an attempt to stall the work of the government as part of rolling demonstrations.

Hundreds of thousands flooded the center of the Ukrainian capital Sunday in a mass rally calling for snap elections and the resignation of Yanukovich. The protesters blocked off the government quarter of the city, and a group of nationalists toppled a statue of Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. Three subway stations in central Kiev were closed Monday while they were checked by law enforcement officials for explosives, temporarily stopping underground traffic in the area of the capital located at the heart of the ongoing anti-government protests.

Police moved in on protesters in Ukraine’s capital in the early hours of Tuesday, breaking up the last of their street barricades and driving the demonstrators into Kiev’s central square in an ongoing push to clear major protest sites.

Interior Ministry troops and riot police broke up protest barricades near Ukraine’s parliament and presidential administration building during the night, driving out several hundred protesters.

Police used shields and batons to dislodge the demonstrators from the sites while some protesters threw tear gas canisters at the troops.

About ten people were injured in the operation; two of the injured were police, while at least one protester was also overcome by tear gas he said was used by the police. A RIA Novosti correspondent at the scene reported that at least 2,000 Interior Ministry troops and riot police officers were involved in the operation.

Let us recall that street protests have been taking place in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities since the government announced on November 21 that it would postpone signing free trade and association agreements with the EU in favor of strengthening ties with Moscow.