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Kiev mass riots: LIVE UPDATES
Unrest in Kiev enters second day as protesters are pelting police cordons with stones and Molotov cocktails, and police retaliate with flash grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets. Dozens of protesters and police have been injured in violent clashes.
Tuesday, January 21
12:20 GMT: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed her concern over the recent escalation of unrest in Ukraine, particularly in the wake of new legislation passed on January 16.
"I call on the authorities to suspend application of the laws to allow time for a thorough review of their content,” she says.
Pillay says she is “particularly concerned by the potential that these laws have to curtail the right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, the right to information, the right of civil society to work freely.”
Nine controversial bills, which permit the arrest of protesters who wear masks or helmets and erect tents or stages without permission from the authorities, come into force on January 22.
11:48 GMT: Government supporters have gathered in Mariinsky park next to the Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev to hold a rally, reports Interfax-Ukraine. The venue for the protest, dubbed “Stop the coup d'état!”, is being guarded by police officers.
Over 3,000 protesters have gathered in Mariinsky park, according to the organizers of the rally, but police figures put it at 1,500.
11:23 GMT: The number of protesters injured in recent clashes in Kiev has reached 122 and 50 still remain in hospitals, reports Kiev City State Administration. On Tuesday 6 protesters from Grushevskogo Street sought medical help, 5 of them have been admitted to hospitals.
119 police officers have sought medical help after two days of clashes in the Ukrainian capital, 80 of them remain hospitalized.
10:28 GMT: The leader of the opposition Udar (Strike) party Vitaly Klitschko is to meet President Viktor Yanukovich for negotiations on Tuesday, reports Ukrainian TBi news channel.
“Viktor Yanukovich has promised me to settle the conflict but he didn’t. I will meet him to seek answers, including on the five demands of the opposition," said Klitschko.
09:58 GMT: Police forces have managed to dismantle a barricade and a catapult which was set up by protesters to hurl objects at police on Monday.
09:55 GMT: Hundreds of protesters have flooded the streets of Kiev. Many of them camped out overnight, despite low temperatures and the huge riot police presence. The protesters are now banging on lamp posts and oil drums on Grushevskovo Street as if making a call to battle.
08:51 GMT: Moscow is ready to be a mediator to settle the Ukrainian crisis only if Kiev asks it to, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a press conference.
“However I understand that our help is not needed as there is a direct contact between the [Ukrainian] president, government and opposition,” he adds.
08:39 GMT: The government in going to do its best to settle the conflict peacefully in Kiev, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said in the statement.
“The Ukrainian government plans to exercise maximum efforts to settle the conflict peacefully and [the government] hopes that international community will condemn the radical actions that provoke clashes and threaten life and health of citizens,” says the statement.
08:55 GMT: The center of Kiev is ravaged after a new wave of anti-governmental protests that took place in the Ukrainian capital overnight. After the clashes between opposition and police forces the streets remain in chaos. Overnight the protesters were throwing stones at police and banging on drums.
07:44 GMT: A pro-Western dictatorship in Ukraine is the aim of those fighting against police forces in Kiev, said the chairman of the State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, Alexey Pushkov.
“Those fighting for power in Kiev are not democrats, but trained and armed militants,” adds Pushkov.
07:32 GMT: Four priests from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church managed to stop clashes between protesters and police for a short time. They were standing and praying between opposition activists and police officers.
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