Ukraine protesters threaten to go on attack

KIEV, Jan 23 (AFP): Ukraine's opposition threatened to go on the attack on Thursday unless the government agreed to concessions to quell protests that have left five activists dead in the first fatalities of two months of anti-government rallies.
Protesters and police were locked in a tense standoff early Thursday after ferocious clashes that turned an area of central Kiev into a virtual war zone, with police using tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets against protesters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails.
The bloody clashes marked a new peak in tensions after two months of protests over the government's failure to sign a deal for closer integration with the European Union under Russian pressure.
Opposition leaders including former world boxing champion Vitali Klitshcko have launched talks with President Viktor Yanukovych and they were due to meet again Thursday, with the chief demand of early elections.
The leader of the opposition Fatherland party Arseniy Yatsenyuk had warned the protesters on Independence Square Wednesday evening that Yanukovych had 24 hours to agree a peaceful solution, saying he was ready to die for the cause.
Ukrainian Berkut riot police were still holding their line on Grushevsky Street in central Kiev as hundreds of protesters faced them on the other side of barricades, an AFP correspondent said.
There were sporadic clashes with demonstrators throwing stones and the police responding with stun grenades but there was a relative lull compared with Wednesday's ferocious fighting.
The demonstrators had overnight further fortified their barricades with sandbags filled with snow.
The deadly violence horrified Ukrainians, who have never witnessed such scenes in their country including during the 2004 Orange Revolution which was almost entirely peaceful.
Amid calls for sanctions against the Ukrainian government, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday warned the authorities that the EU executive authority would assess "possible actions" against the Ukrainian authorities.
The United States also revoked the visas of several Ukrainian nationals linked to violence against protesters in November and December last year, the US embassy said in a statement.