Deadly Ukraine clashes: Live Report

Deadly Ukraine clashes: Live Report

1844 GMT: With nightfall settling on an uneasy Kiev, AFP's Live Report is going offline -- for now. Should major developments break overnight in Ukraine, we will crank back up to bring you the latest from this flashpoint city.

Protesters burn as they stand behind flaming barricades during clashes with police in Kiev on February 20, 2014

Meanwhile, here is a look at today's major developments in Ukraine, where pitched street battles between anti-government protesters and riot police shook the capital:

- an opposition medic says more than 60 anti-government protesters died today from gunshot wounds in Kiev, making it the bloodiest day of violence since Ukraine's independence

- City authorities quote a lower figure, saying at least 67 people have been killed in total in waves of violence that first broke out Tuesday

- police fire live ammunition "in self-defence" when protesters threatened them, says the interior ministry, which also accuses "radical extremists" of seizing 67 police officers

- the clashes shatter a truce called by President Viktor Yanukovych late yesterday in response to a spurt of violence Tuesday that killed 28 people

- the violence erupts as the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland discuss "ideas for a roadmap" toward a peaceful solution during four hours of talks in Kiev with Yanukovych

- Ukraine's three main opposition leaders describe the unrest as a "planned provocation" by the pro-Russian government but Moscow blamed it on "extremists and hardliners" bent on sparking a civil war

- The European Union agrees to impose a travel ban and asset freeze on Ukrainians responsible for the deadly violence, while an EU diplomat says "there was a political commitment to sanctions" agreed by the 28-nation bloc.

1821 GMT: Reporting from Ukraine's capital, AFP's Marianne Barriaux conveys the tension and tragedy enveloping Kiev: snipers, barricades, bullet-proof vests and what she describes as the "horrifyingly sweet smell of death" wafting through the lobby of the hotel Ukraina, where a makeshift morgue and hospital are set up.

An opposition medic says more than 60 anti-government protesters died today from gunshot wounds in the capital, making it the bloodiest day of violence since Ukraine's independence.

At one barricade blocking the entrance to Independence Square, the bodies of eight protesters lie on the ground, the Ukrainian flag wrapped around them, their faces already deathly white.

People file past, Barriaux reports, some placing roses on the bodies, others lighting candles, many crying. One old man with white hair stands there, weeping.

First they pray, and then they bellow out the Ukrainian national anthem, their hands on their heart. "Glory to Ukraine!" one man shouts.

1748 GMT: Night has descended on crisis-plagued Kiev.

Across the Atlantic, Washington is voicing its anger with Ukraine's handling of anti-government protests, in particular how its forces turned automatic weapons on demonstrators as the short-lived truce shattered in Kiev.

In a statement, White House press secretary Jay Carney called for the withdrawal of government forces from the front lines in the Ukrainian capital, but did not specify what consequences there would be from Washington after its previous, repeated calls for an end to violence were ignored.

"We are outraged by the images of Ukrainian security forces firing automatic weapons on their own people," Carney says.

1734 GMT: The European Union agrees to impose a travel ban and asset freeze on Ukrainians who have "blood on their hands" related to the violent clashes between authorities and anti-government protesters, Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino says.

Bonino, speaking after Ukraine crisis talks in Brussels with her EU counterparts, says the sanctions would be imposed "very rapidly in the next hours."

1715 GMT: With Kiev in flames, the shockwaves of Ukraine's unrest have reverberated through Sochi, Russia, where Olympics officials are grappling with a political crisis that is now overshadowing the Winter Games as they enter the closing phase.

Two members of the Ukrainian team, an alpine skier and her father-coach, have pulled out of the Games in protest of the deadly force used by authorities.

As AFP's Stuart Williams reports from Sochi, the biggest controversy has been whether Ukrainian athletes should wear black armbands as a symbol of their grief, something that the International Olympic Committee says would fly in the face of its Charter.

1655 GMT: A summary of today's main developments in the crisis in Ukraine, as raging street battles between baton-wielding protesters and riot police took place in the capital Kiev:

- an opposition medic says more than 60 anti-government protesters died today from gunshot wounds in the capital, making it the bloodiest day of violence since Ukraine's independence

- Kiev city authorities quote a lower figure, saying at least 67 people have been killed in total in two waves of violence that first broke out on Tuesday

- police fired live ammunition "in self-defence" when protesters threatened them, said the interior ministry, which also accused "radical extremists" of seizing 67 police officers

- the clashes shattered a truce called by Yanukovych late yesterday in response to a spurt of violence on Tuesday that killed 28 people

- the violence erupts as the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland discuss "ideas for a roadmap" toward a peaceful solution during four hours of talks in Kiev with embattled President Victor Yanukovych

- Ukraine's three main opposition leaders describe the unrest as a "planned provocation" by the pro-Russian government but Moscow blamed it on "extremists and hardliners" bent on sparking a civil war

1640 GMT: EU foreign ministers and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych have discussed a possible "roadmap" out of the crisis in Ukraine, which the government and opposition have yet to agree on, a German delegation source says.

In four hours of talks in Kiev, the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland discussed "ideas for a roadmap" toward a peaceful solution with Yanukovych, said the source.

The three EU ministers were also discussing the plan with opposition leaders and extending their stay in Kiev until tomorrow (Friday), said the source.

1625 GMT: Further to previous post, Kiev city authorities say at least 67 people have been killed in two waves of violence between protesters and riot police that first broke out on Tuesday.

"Sixty-seven bodies had been delivered to the forensics bureau" by this afternoon, the Ukrainian city administration said in a statement that provided the highest official casualty figure from the violence to date.

Opposition medics earlier said that 67 protesters had been shot dead by police today alone.

1615 GMT: Kiev authorities say 67 killed in this week's clashes, an AFP correspondent reports.

1555 GMT: France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says in a tweet that "after five hours of talks with Viktor Yanukovych we are again going to meet the three leaders of the opposition."

1540 GMT: "A German official reports that the foreign minister of France, Germany and Poland met Yanukovych for private talks in Kiev that lasted an impressive four hours," AFP correspondent Dmitry Zaks reports.

"The troika walked out of the room wearing big smiles, while the Ukrainian leader characteristically avoided the press.

"The EU three are now waiting for a meeting with the three main opposition leaders, including the former boxer Vitali Klitschko.

"This is an undisguised EU attempt to take a leading diplomatic role in trying to diffuse the escalating crisis, trying to muscle Russia – which has appointing its own Ukraine peace envoy who is arriving in Kiev later Thursday – out of the process."

1523 GMT: Further detail on 1510 GMT post reporting Ukraine's interior ministry announcement that protesters have seized 67 policemen.

"Radical extremists have seized 67 interior ministry servicemen," the ministry says in a statement.

"Law enforcement officials can resort to all legal means (to secure their release), including the use of arms."

1514 GMT: The European Union is mulling an arms embargo on Ukraine at a crisis meeting in Brussels as three EU envoys -- the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland -- hold talks with the country's embattled President Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev.

1510 GMT: Protesters in Kiev have 'seized' 67 policemen, the interior ministry says.

1500 GMT: The EU's three envoys to Ukraine, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland, have stayed on in Kiev as their counterparts gather for crisis talks on Ukraine in Brussels.

Diplomats tell AFP that the three ministers, whose report on events in Kiev were keenly awaited by their 24 colleagues, would communicate by phone or video link.

1453 GMT: Further to earlier update, Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending a representative to Kiev at the request of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to act as a mediator in talks with the opposition, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says.

Yanukovych called Putin and "proposed that the Russian leader send to Kiev a Russian representative to participate as a mediator in the talks with opposition," Peskov told Russian news agencies.

"Putin has decided to charge the human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin with this mission," he added.

1448 GMT: URGENT: more than 60 protesters have died today from gunshot wounds in fresh clashes between thousands of demonstrators and heavily-armed riot police in the heart of Kiev, a medic who works with the opposition says.

"More than 60 protesters died today. They all have gunshot wounds," the EuroMaidan Medical Centre coordinator Svyatoslav Khanenko tells AFP in Kiev.

1445 GMT: The Kremlin is sending a representative as a mediator to Kiev over the Ukraine crisis, AFP correspondents in Moscow report a spokesman as saying.

1438 GMT: Further to previous entry on Ukraine's police using firearms in "legitimate self-defence", the country's interior ministry says: "For the purpose of preserving the lives and wellbeing of law enforcement officials, a decision was taken ... to use weapons in self defence."

The ministry adds that its staff "have the right to use firearms" if their lives or wellbeing are threatened.

1424 GMT: Ukrainian police have admitted using firearms in "legitimate self-defence", AFP correspondents in Kiev report.

1415 GMT: On their arrival in Brussels for the EU summit, two foreign ministers stress the need to work with Russia to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, reports AFP correspondent Jerome Rivet.

"I hope a collaboration with our Russian colleagues, because otherwise the case file [on Ukraine] may seize up even more," says Belgium's Didier Reynders.

"We have a communal responsibility with the Russians for stability on our continent," says his Dutch counterpart Franz Timmermans.

1403 GMT: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it is "extremely concerned about the spiralling violence in Ukraine" and the lack of respect being shown towards humanitarian and medical personnel, AFP correspondents in Geneva report.

The organisation expresses its regret that a volunteer Ukrainian Red Cross has been injured while providing medical assistance, while other members of the Ukrainian Red Cross and volunteers were also harassed.

In the last 48 hours, the Ukrainian Red Cross has helped more than 360 people, the ICRC says.

1345 GMT: British Foreign Minister William Hague calls for an "international response" to the crisis in Kiev as he arrives for an EU foreign ministers summit in Brussels.

"The latest scenes in Kiev include the killing of more people are utterly inacceptable and indefensible and the UK condemns these actions in the strongest terms," Hague says.

"The EU has to act in a way that helps to stop the violence because we must put a stop in the violence.

"There has to be an international response that's why we are discussing sanctions.

"It is time on all sides to turn away from violence but the Ukrainian government has the particular responsibility to take a lead on that and now it's failing on that."

1329 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has condemned threatened Western sanctions against Ukrainian officials as an "attempt at bullying".

"The possibility of sanctions is nothing but an attempt at bullying," Lavrov says during a press conference in Baghdad, in remarks translated from Russian into Arabic.

1310 GMT: More from AFP correspondents in Berlin on German Chancellor Angela Merkel urging Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych to accept EU help in opposition talks.

"She sharply condemned the latest escalation," said Merkel's spokesman, adding that the chancellor also "urgently" advised the president to accept the EU's offer of crisis mediation.

1305 GMT: Ukraine's ambassador to Britain has been summoned to the UK Foreign Office over 'shocking' violence, the department announces on its official Twitter account @foreignoffice.

1255 GMT: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych to accept EU help in opposition talks, AFP correspondents in Berlin report.

1238 GMT: A reminder that AFP reporters say they saw the bodies of at least 25 protesters with apparent gunshot wounds around two popular Independence Square hotels and lying outside the central Kiev post office this morning.

Ukraine's interior ministry says two policeman died from gunshot wounds sustained in the clashes and advised Kiev residents to stay indoors "because the streets of Kiev are occupied by armed and aggressive people".

1225 GMT: A reminder that Ukraine's crisis was initially ignited by President Viktor Yanukovych's shock decision in November to ditch an historic European Union trade and political association agreement in favour of closer ties with Kiev's historic masters in the Kremlin.

It has since evolved into a much broader anti-government movement that has swept through both the pro-Western west of the country as well as parts of its more Russified east and exposed the deep historical fault lines between the two.

1220 GMT: The deaths in Kiev this morning bring to at least 54 the number of people killed in Ukraine since the start of the week, according to health ministry and AFP counts.

1210 GMT: More on the resignation today of Kiev's mayor - Volodymyr Makeyenko has quit President Viktor Yanukovych's ruling Regions Party in protest over the "bloodshed" that has claimed dozens of lives in the Ukrainian capital.

"The events happening in the Ukrainian capital are a tragedy," Makeyenko said in a statement. "I have decided to resign from the Regions Party and assume personal responsibility for the livelihood of the city of Kiev."

1158 GMT: More detail on the comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - he has accused Ukrainian "extremists and hardliners" of seeking to spark a civil war.

Moscow supports negotiations between Ukranian authorities and the opposition, so they can try to overcome "this crisis and together fight extremists and hardliners who are trying to provoke a civil war," Lavrov says at news conference in Baghdad, in remarks translated from Russian into Arabic.

1153 GMT: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Ukraine's opposition hardliners want civil war, AFP correspondents report.

1150 GMT: Kiev's mayor has resigned from the ruling party in protest over 'bloodshed', AFP correspondents report.

1145 GMT: Ukraine's interior ministry advises Kiev residents not to venture outdoors after fresh clashes between protesters and riot police.

"It is best to currently limit your use of motor vehicles or to simply stay indoors," the ministry in charge of Ukraine's vast police force said in a statement.

"These security measures are necessary because the streets of Kiev are occupied by armed and aggressive people."

1135 GMT: Ukrainian police have told Kiev residents not to go outside, AFP correspondents report.

1125 GMT: A summary of the latest on clashes in Kiev's Independence Square this morning:

- armed protesters have stormed police barricades in renewed violence that killed at least 26 people, shattering an hours-old truce as EU envoys hold crisis talks with Ukraine's embattled president

- bodies of anti-government demonstrators lie amid smouldering debris after masked protesters hurling Molotov cocktails and stones forced police from the capital's iconic Independence Square

- retreating police unleashed a hail of rubber bullets on protesters as plumes of acrid smoke billowed into the air amid the explosions of stun grenades

- the lobby of the Ukraina hotel overlooking the square has been turned into an impromptu morgue, with the bodies of seven dead protesters lying side by side under white sheets on the marble floor in front of the reception desk

- an AFP photographer sees spent live cartridge shells littering the ground on the square. It was unclear who had used the ammunition

1110 GMT: Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev insists that Ukraine must "protect its people, protect its security structures... Only in that case can we develop full economic cooperation."

Russia will "try to do everything to fulfil the promises that were given," the prime minister says in televised remarks.

His comments apparently refer to the $15 bailout deal secured by President Viktor Yanukovych in December soon after he scrapped an agreement with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia.

Russia has so far released the first $3 billion tranche of the money. On Monday, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov pledged $2 billion more in aid "this week."

1054 GMT: A Ukrainian alpine skier and her coach have pulled out of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in protest at the authorities' deadly use of force against the protests in Kiev, they say.

Bogdana Matsotska and her coach Oleg Matsotskiy, who is also her father, said they were "outraged" by the refusal of President Viktor Yanukovych to favour dialogue over force.

"In a sign of protest... against the bandit-like actions against protesters, we are taking no further part in the Sochi Olympics in 2014," Oleg Matsotskiy wrote on his Facebook page in a statement in the name of himself and his daughter.

They are the first members of the Ukrainian team confirmed to have pulled out of Sochi 2014 over the deadly violence.

1050 GMT: Russia, which was due to release two billion dollars in aid to Ukraine this week, wants a strong government in Kiev, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tells his cabinet.

"We need partners who are in good shape and for the authorities that work in Ukraine to be legitimate and effective, so that people don't wipe their feet on the authorities like a doormat," Medvedev said in televised remarks.

1045 GMT: Ukraine's three main opposition leaders have called fresh violence that has claimed the lives of at least 25 protesters "a provocation" by the pro-Russian government of President Viktor Yanukovych.

"The resumption of clashes on the Maidan (Independence Square) at a time when a truce was called is a planned provocation by the authorities against peaceful protesters," said a statement posted on the website of boxer turned opposition leader Vitali Klitschko.

1034 GMT: The bodies of eight demonstrators are lying outside Kiev's main post office on Independence Square, an AFP reporter says.

The bodies of 17 other demonstrators with apparent gunshot wounds can also be seen in the vicinity of two hotels on opposite sides of the protest encampment.

WELCOME TO AFP'S LIVE REPORT on deadly clashes between armed protesters and riot police in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, as the country's embattled president holds urgent talks with EU foreign ministers on the raging crisis.

At least 25 protesters were killed on Thursday in fresh clashes between thousands of demonstrators and heavily-armed riot police.

The violence flared when masked protesters pelted Molotov cocktails and rocks at thick lines of armed police in Kiev's central Independence Square, the epicentre of the ex-Soviet country's three-month-old political crisis.

Stay with us for updates as events unfold.

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