Clashes in Kiev as thousands rally to defy new protest laws

RT
Jan 19, 2014

Ukrainian protesters clashed with police in central Kiev after at least 10,000 people took to Independence Square for an anti-government demonstration. Police retaliation was prompted by an attempt to storm the government quarter.

What started as a peaceful demonstration on the city’s Independence Square, or Maidan, with heated anti-government slogans being shouted and the announcement that the opposition was creating a “people’s assembly,” turned into violent clashes with the police later Sunday.

Protesters wearing orange helmets and wielding sticks and flares clashed with cordons of security forces surrounding government buildings and attempted to turn over a police bus.

Live feeds showed riot police retaliating by throwing flash grenades from behind the cordon, as Twitter exploded with reports of Berkut special police forces readying to forcefully disperse the crowd and water cannon approaching the area. While such reports are not uncommon during mass protests in Kiev, they often prove to be a part of false flag alarms.

Some Twitter users and Ukrainian opposition figures decried the most aggressive protesters as “provocateurs” and called them to stop provoking the police.