KIEV, December 9 (RIA Novosti) – Interior Ministry troops in Ukraine’s capital on Monday repelled demonstrators from a position they had taken up outside the Cabinet office in a renewed effort to clear major protest sites.
Thousands of protesters in Kiev have built a tent camp in the central Independence Square and barricaded a number of important state buildings in an attempt to stall the work of the government as part of ongoing rallies to demand snap elections and the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych.
A RIA Novosti correspondent reported that police and Interior Ministry troops had started dismantling barricades blocking access to the government headquarters.
In a separate development, the party of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said riot police had stormed its headquarters.
“There are many Berkut [Ukraine’s riot police unit] operatives, they are breaking down doors,” Marina Soroka said in an interview with Ukraine’s Channel 5 television.
The Kiev police was quick to deny the report, however.
Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) is one of Ukraine’s three major opposition parties leading mass rallies against the government policies that have swept through the former Soviet republic in the past three weeks.
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.
