Around 1,000 protestors have moved from Kiev’s Independence Square to occupy a government building in response to opposition calls to observe a truce with riot police, after long talks with President Viktor Yanukovych ended without a major breakthrough. Early on this morning, the protesters broke into the Agricultural Policy Ministry building in central Kiev, meeting no resistance.
It comes after the seizure of local governors’ offices in several western regions yesterday. On Wednesday, after three people were killed in clashes with riot police, the opposition politician Vitali Klitschko had asked protesters in central Kiev to observe an eight-hour truce while talks went on. But when the trio of opposition leaders emerged after gruelling talks with the president that lasted for more than four hours, they had changed their mind, asking for more time and a continuation of the ceasefire, which led to a continuation of the violence.
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