KIEV-
Police clashed with protesters who barricaded a building in central Kiev on Sunday.
Protesters numbering a few thousands attempted to storm a cultural centre where hundreds of security forces were gathered in central Kiev.
Demonstrators threw stones and smoke bombs while police fired stun grenades and sprayed water into the crowd.
The police and security forces later left the building and streamed out through a corridor created by the crowd after an opposition leader, Vitaly Klitschko, arrived at the scene and helped negotiate a solution.
The clash followed President Viktor Yanukovich’s biggest concession yet in a two-month-old standoff by offering opponent and former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk the post of prime minister. Klitschko, a former international boxing champion, was offered the post of deputy prime minister responsible for humanitarian issues, according to a statement on the presidential website.
The offers, termed poison by opponents, were linked to the opposition hold back violent demonstrators.
Klitschko told a German newspaper, “This was a poisoned offer by Yanukovich to divide our protest movement. We will keep on negotiating and continue to demand early elections. The protest by Ukrainians against the corrupt president must not have been in vain.”
In November, Yanukovich abruptly abandoned plans for signing political association and free trade deals with the European Union in November and instead vowed to improve ties with former Soviet master Russia. His move left millions angered, sparking protests across the country that has killed at least three people.
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