50 dead as Kiev clashes renew

Ukrne’s ombudsperson Valeria Lutkovskaya said about 50 people "or more" had died in the capital and hundreds had been wounded.ai

Bloody clashes flared again between armed radicals and police in Kiev hours after the warring sides negotiated a truce.

Rioters attacked police with rocks and Molotov cocktails on Thursday pushing them back several hundred metres to positions the protesters held before security forces went into offensive a day earlier.

The death toll, which stood at 28 dead on Wednesday, appears to have doubled on Thursday. Ukraine’s ombudsperson Valeria Lutkovskaya said about 50 people “or more” had died in the capital and hundreds had been wounded.

Ahead of the arrival of a high-powered delegation of the European Union in Kiev Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych at an overnight meeting with opposition leaders agreed to their demand to declare a ceasefire.

However, the Right Sector, an umbrella organisation for extreme nationalist groups who have been battling the police, rejected the agreement.

“Somebody up there would wish to stop people’s uprising by declaring a false truce,” the group’s leader Dmitro Yarosh wrote on Facebook. “The Right Sector has not signed any agreement with anyone; therefore the offensive by the people in revolt must go on.”

Police said 10 officers had died from gunshot wounds in two days of fighting. More than a hundred security personnel were wounded and 67 taken prisoner by radicals. Protesters in turn accused security forces of using life ammunition.

Radicals stormed and seized a military base in Western Ukraine and set on fire its ammunition arsenal.

Ukraine's acting Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharschenko said he had given orders to arm police with “combat weapons” to protect citizens and property from attacks and for self-defence.

Mr Yanukovych’s press service said the protesters had used the truce to regroup and bring more weapons to Kiev.

Foreign Ministers of German, France and Poland, who arrived in Kiev on Thursday, conferred with Ukraine’s opposition leaders before meeting Mr Yanukovych. Some reports said the ministers were pressing Mr Yanukovych to agree to early elections.

Meanwhile, Russia voiced frustration with Mr Yanukovych’s indecisiveness in curbing the violence.

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Ukrainian authorities must “get their act together and protect people and law enforcement structures,” before Moscow resumes financial aid Ukraine.

“We need partners who are in good shape, legitimate and effective, so that people don't wipe their feet on the authorities like a doormat,” Mr Medvedev said at a cabinet meeting in Moscow on Thursday.