09/12/2013 18:46
Police move into central Kiev, protesters fear crackdown
Ukrainian security forces moved into central Kiev on Monday prompting fears among anti-government protesters that the authorities plan to forcibly clear tent camps and barricades from the city center, RIA Novosti reported.
Interior Ministry troops, who declined to say where they were going or why, were moving towards Independence Square, according to a RIA Novosti reporter.
Police shut down three subway stations in central Kiev on Monday to check for explosives, temporarily stopping underground traffic in the area of the capital located at the heart of the ongoing anti-government protests, the local UNIAN news agency reported.
Opposition leader Arseny Yatsenyuk said riot police were preparing to storm Independence Square, which has become the focus of the protests against President Yanukovych after his government backed off from signing a deal on closer integration with the European Union.
“We are going to defend Independence Square,” Yatsenyuk said at a hastily-called briefing for reporters.
Ukrainian opposition leader Vitaly Klichko urged protesters to rally at Independence Square despite the metro shutdown on Monday.
“The authorities are trying to crush and psychologically scare us, but people are not going to go and will stand,” he said, according to the press service of Klichko’s Udar party.
Klichko has previously said that if the government uses force to clear Independence Square it could escalate demonstrations and cause a country-wide rising.
Protesters in Kiev have built a permanent tent camp in Independence Square and barricaded public buildings in an attempt to stall the work of the government as part of rolling demonstrations.
Hundreds of thousands flooded the center of the Ukrainian capital on Sunday in a mass rally calling for snap elections and the resignation of Yanukovych. The protesters blocked off the government quarter of the city, and a group of nationalists ripped down a statue of Soviet revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.