Days of Protest in Ukraine
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Over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine took
to the streets to demonstrate against President Viktor Yanukovich's
decision to abandon an EU integration pact, as he works to strengthen
economic ties to Russia, rather than Europe. Protesters blockaded
government buildings and occupied Independence Square in Kiev today,
seeking to force Yanukovich from office. After harsh crackdowns last
night, demonstrations continued this morning, with leaders calling for a
nationwide strike. [30 photos]
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Protesters try to break through police lines near the presidential
administration building during a rally held by supporters of EU
integration in Kiev, on December 1, 2013. Ukrainian opposition leaders
called on Sunday for President Viktor Yanukovich and his government to
resign at a rally of about 350,000 people, the biggest protest in the
capital Kiev since the "Orange Revolution" of nine years ago. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich) 
Opposition protesters face riot police on November 29, 2013 during a
demonstration in Kiev. Ukrainian authorities deployed hundreds of riot
police to central Kiev where thousands of protesters gathered after
President Viktor Yanukovych failed to salvage a key deal with the
European Union. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images) #
Protesters clash with police on Independence Square in Kiev early on
November 30, 2013. Dozens of protesters were wounded in Ukraine's
capital when police brutally dispersed demonstrators calling for
President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster after he failed to salvage an EU
deal. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #
A protester waves a Ukranian flag from a moving car in Kiev, on
November 30, 2013. Ukraine's political opposition said it would call a
general strike to force the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovich's
government after police used batons and stun grenades to break up
pro-Europe protests. (Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko) #
Demonstrators gather during a rally in downtown Kiev, on December 1,
2013. The mass rally in central Kiev defied a government ban on protests
on Independence Square, in the biggest show of anger over President
Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to sign a political and economic agreement
with the European Union. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) #
Protesters dig up stones during clashes with police outside the
presidential administration building in downtown Kiev, on December 1,
2013. A protest by about 300,000 Ukrainians angered by their
government's decision to freeze integration with the West turned
violent, when a group of demonstrators besieged the president's office
and police drove them back with truncheons, tear gas and flash grenades.
Dozens of people were injured. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) #
Men kneel down before a line of riot police near the presidential
administration building during a rally held by supporters of EU
integration in Kiev, on December 1, 2013. Ukrainian opposition leader
Vitaly Klitschko, addressing hundreds of thousands of protesters in
central Kiev, called on President Viktor Yanukovich and his government
to resign, saying they had "stolen" Ukraine's dream of European
integration. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich) #
A protester with a chain clashes with police during the storming of the
Viktor Yanukovych Presidential office in Kiev, on December 1, 2013. The
crowd chanted "Revolution!" and "Down with the Gang" as it took control
of Kiev's iconic Independence Square and steered a bulldozer within
striking distance of police barricades protecting the nearby
presidential adminstration office. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images) #
A stun grenade explodes among protesters as they clash with police
during the storming of the Viktor Yanukovych Presidential office in
Kiev, on December 1, 2013. AFP reporters saw security forces outside the
presidential building fire stun grenades and smoke bombs at a few dozen
masked demonstrators who were pelting police with huge stones and what
Ukrainian media said were molotov cocktails. (Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images) #
A photographer stands in front of police members during clashes with
pro-European Ukrainian demonstrators near the presidential
administration office in Kiev, as outraged Ukrainians swarmed the city
in a call for early elections meant to punish authorities for rejecting a
historic EU pact, on December 1, 2013. Ukrainian media said President
Yanukovych spent most of the day huddling with his most senior advisers
at a secluded suburban residence. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images) #
Protesters clash with police guarding the presidential administration
building in downtown Kiev, on December 1, 2013. Police allowed the rally
to proceed peacefully, but when a few thousand protesters tried to
storm the nearby presidential administration building with a front
loader, riot police used tear gas, truncheons and flash grenades to
drive them back. Dozens of people with what appeared to be head injuries
were taken away by ambulance.(AP Photo/Sergei Grits) #
Kiev's landmark, the 50-meter-high (164-foot-high) Independence Column,
seen through a hole in a barricade on December 2, 2013. Thousands of
Ukrainian protesters besieged government buildings in Kiev and called
for the ouster of the prime minister and his Cabinet, as anger at the
president's decision to ditch a deal for closer ties with the European
Union gripped other parts of the country and threatened his rule. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits) #
Protesters sleep on the floor as others look through a window for
possible police presence inside Kiev's city hall, on December 1, 2013.
Ukrainian nationalist protesters broke into Kiev's city hall and were
occupying at least part of the building during mass protests that drew
several hundred thousands out on the streets to protest the government's
decision to forgo an EU deal. (Reuters/Stoyan Nenov) #
Thousands of demonstrators march in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv
on December 2, 2013. Ukrainian protesters blockaded administrative
buildings and camped on Kiev's central square in a bid to oust the
government after police brutality and a row over an EU pact plunged the
nation into its worst political crisis in a decade. Demonstrators were
newly incensed by a crackdown on an opposition rally calling for the
resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and his government. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images) #
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