In Ukraine, the government opponents gear up for new clashes with the police. The opposition demanded the resignation of President Yanukovych until tonight. Ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko speaks of an impending “massacre”.

The opposition in Ukraine wants to force the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych. For Thursday, the Alliance to Vitali Klitschko announced new large-scale demonstrations.

He was convinced “that go in the next few days as many people as at any time since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Ukraine on the street,” Klitschko said in a commentary for the “Bild” newspaper. They would “Yanukovych show that our desire for freedom is greater than the fear of his sniper”.

In the night waited thousands of government opponents in the center of Kiev. The protesters want to prevent the imminent eviction of their protest camp. Within hours, they raised the barricades around the Maidan – the Independence Square in Kiev – by sacks filled with snow. Additions during the protest camp were narrowed and guarded by activists, so that partly formed long queues at temperatures of minus ten degrees. In addition, they put car tires around the place on fire.

Near the Maidan forces tore down barricades and arrested several demonstrators before the government opponents rallied again. Some of them threw Molotov cocktails and stones and set tires on fire. The police used tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades, according to journalists protesters were lying on the ground with sticks and kicks maltreated.

For the first time since the protests began in November were driven up on Wednesday armored personnel carriers in the city center of Kiev. Furthermore, the authorities lifted the ban on the use of water cannons in subzero temperatures.

Several opposition politicians, including Klitschko and former Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had previously more than three hours meeting with Yanukovych in order to achieve an end to the violence. The talks were inconclusive, it was said afterwards.
“We will continue to stand on the court and fight if it is necessary,” Klitschko called out in the evening to his followers on the Maidan. Yatsenyuk of the Fatherland Party of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko gave Yanukovych “24 Hours” to prevent a “bloodbath”.

On Wednesday, according to figures from doctors killed five people and injured 300 more. The authorities confirmed so far three lives. The opposition accuses the security forces, they would have made targeted hunting of government opponents.

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