Ukraina valde Ryssland före EU - stora protester som följd, länkar i inlägg2

Dozens were injured as Ukrainian protesters seeking President Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster clashed with police as they tried to reach parliament and pressure lawmakers to end a deadly three-month standoff.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a lawmaker and former central banker, and Oleh Tyahnybok, who heads the nationalist Svoboda party, led thousands of demonstrators into Mariyinskyi Park just south of the legislature before police halted the advance, triggering violence. It’s the first mass action outside their compound around Independence Square, formed three months ago, since Jan. 19, when the last march was repelled.

Police used rubber bullets and stun and flash grenades to stop rock-throwing marchers on Shovkovychna Street, which ends at parliament. Molotov cocktails thrown from the crowd set at least two government trucks on fire. Protesters burned tires on another route, producing plumes of black smoke that covered the area where three activists were shot dead on Jan. 22.

Clouds of mouth-burning pepper gas permeated Mariyinskyi Park, where hundreds of riot police established a line of defense about 200 meters from parliament. They were faced by a similar number of truncheon-wielding protesters, most wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests and some carrying air pistols. At least 30 marchers and seven policemen have been injured, according to opposition and Interior Ministry officials.

Dr. Olga Bogomolets, a physician, told the Kyiv Post at 3:30 p.m. that three protesters had been shot to death while dozens more were injured, including many with serious wounds. The Emergencies Ministry reported a fourth casualty, that of an employee for the ruling pro-presidential Party of Regions, apparently killed after protesters stormed the party office on Lypska Street.

Opposition MP Lesya Orobets - a member of the Batkivshchyna party - said on her Facebook page that the bodies of three protesters were inside a building close to parliament. A number of medical workers operating in opposition field hospitals gave the same number of dead.