Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko announced Monday a hunger strike and thousands joined protests over a shock decision to scrap an EU pact as President Viktor Yanukovych appealed for calm.
Photo taken on February 2, 2011 shows Ukraine's former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko posing in her residence in Kiev during her interview with AFP
The duelling statements of the two arch political rivals came as up to 20,000 pro-European Union protesters massed Monday evening in central Kiev for a second day of nationwide rallies against the government.
The Kiev protest on Sunday drew the biggest crowds since the pro-West 2004 Orange Revolution overturned a rigged presidential poll and forced a new ballot.
"I am announcing an indefinite hunger strike demanding that Yanukovych sign an association and free trade agreement with the EU," the fiery co-leader of the Orange Revolution was quoted by her opposition party Batkivschyna as saying.
"And if Yanukovych does not sign our agreement with the EU on November 29, wipe him off the face of Ukraine through peaceful and constitutional means together with his political and corruption metastases," Tymoshenko added. "Don't stop!"
Addressing the nation for the first time since his government put the EU talks on ice last week, Yanukovych called for peace.
"I want peace and calm in our big Ukrainian family," Yanukovych said in a video statement posted on his website.
Protesters are angry at the government's sudden turnaround scrapping a long-mooted plan to sign a key trade and political deal with the EU at a summit in Vilnius this week.
Seen as a first step toward EU membership, the Association Agreement would have marked a historic break by Ukraine from its former master Moscow.
The decision came after the parliament failed to adopt legislation that would have freed Tymoshenko, a key EU condition for the signing of the deal.
After losing to Yanukovych in a 2010 presidential poll, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in jail on abuse of power charges seen by the West as politically motivated.
Pledging to continue reforms, Yanukovych said Monday he would not act "to the detriment of Ukraine and its people".
"No one will rob us of a dream about a Ukraine of equal opportunities, about a European Ukraine," he said.
Yanukovych added that by postponing the country's EU integration plans, he was shielding many vulnerable Ukrainians from economic hardship.
"Just like a father cannot leave his family without bread, I do not have the right to leave people to the mercy of fate with the problems which may arise... if production comes to a halt (and) millions of citizens will be thrown out into the streets."
Tymoshenko's statement urging people to keep the protest alive was read out by her lawyer at the rally in Kiev. The atmosphere was tense as some protesters scuffled with baton-wielding police.
The opposition UDAR (Punch) party said unknown provocateurs had thrown smoke bombs and fired tear gas at the police.
Protesters and authorities also scuffled during a protest near the government seat earlier Monday, with police firing tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, AFP correspondents said.
The authorities claimed the tear gas was used by opposition activists, not police.
'Offer still on the table'
The European bloc said Monday its offer of the agreement was "still on the table" this week and reiterated its criticism of Russian pressure on Ukraine.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele told Ukrainian reporters that the bloc would even accept a last-minute decision from Ukraine.
"The deadline for that is Friday morning," he said by video link.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara told reporters Yanukovych still planned to travel to Vilnius.
Russia wants Ukraine to join its Customs Union which also includes Belarus and Kazakshtan and threatened retaliation if Kiev signed the EU deal.
Linguistic and historic fault lines divide Ukraine into the Kremlin-friendly Russian-speaking east and the nationalistic Ukrainian-speaking west, and Yanukovych's decision to freeze the EU negotiations has once again polarised the nation.
The government explained its decision to drop the EU agreement as the result of economic hardship and a lack of financial support from the bloc.
But many observers say Yanukovych's fears for his future trump his concerns about the country's direction and that he has no interest in freeing Tymoshenko ahead of 2015 presidential elections.
"Yanukovych does not care what and which union Ukraine will be part of if he is not at the helm of it," Russian daily Vedomosti said.