Ukrainian protesters put up street barricades and occupied a government ministry building on Friday, raising tension after the failure of crisis talks with President Viktor Yanukovich.
About 1,000 protesters moved away from Kiev’s Independence Square in the early hours of Friday and began to erect new barricades closer to presidential headquarters.
Masked protesters, some carrying riot police shields seized as trophies, stood guard as others piled up sandbags packed with frozen snow to form new walls across the road leading down into the square.
Opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, after leaving a second round of talks with Yanukovich empty handed, late on Thursday voiced fears the deadlock could now lead to further bloodshed.
At least three protesters have been killed so far – two from gunshot wounds – after clashes between protesters led by a hard core of radicals and riot police.
After speaking first to protesters manning the barricades, Klitschko then went to Independence Square where he declared: “Hours of conversation were spent about nothing. There is no sense sitting at a negotiating table with someone who has already decided to deceive you.
“I earnestly wish that there will be no bloodshed and that people are not killed … I will survive, but I am afraid there will be deaths, I am afraid of this,” the boxer-turned-politician said.
Three opposition politicians – Klitschko, former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and far-right nationalist Oleh Tyahnibok – had tried to wring concessions from Yanukovich that would end two months of street protests against his rule.
A group of protesters took control of the main agricultural ministry building in the center. “We need the place for our people to warm up,” a local protest leader was quoted as saying by a Russian news agency.
There were no signs that protesters were regarding an appeal from general prosecutor Viktor Pshonka who said early on Friday that those so far arrested would be treated leniently by the courts if protest action was stopped.
