Protesters try to storm Ukraine House, where dozens of riot police were based during an anti-government protest in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, early this morning. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA
Ukraine’s opposition leaders have rejected an offer of top government posts and vowed to extend street protests until President Viktor Yanukovich accepts all their demands.
Overnight, demonstrators took control of another building in central Kiev, forcing a police unit out of an exhibition hall located between the main protest camp on Independence Square and barricades on Grushevsky Street, which leads towards parliament and government headquarters.
Mr Yanukovich last night proposed to appoint Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister and former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko as deputy premier, and to dismiss the current cabinet - which is packed with his allies - if the liberal party leaders accepted his offer.
“The president is convinced that joint work together with the opposition will help the state unite and carry out the necessary reforms,” said justice minister Olena Lukash.
The opposition rejected the concessions, however, saying they would not satisfy protesters who now control several official buildings in Kiev and the headquarters of local administrations across a growing swathe of western and central Ukraine. Support for Mr Yanukovich - and for tough measures against demonstrators - appears to remain strong in southern and eastern regions.
Mr Yatsenyuk told tens of thousands of people on Independence Square that Mr Yanukovich had “suggested that the opposition take some responsibility and lead the government.”
“We were, to say the least, not thrilled by that suggestion. I fully recognise what’s happening now in Ukraine. The country is on the verge of bankruptcy. They robbed the country for three-and-a-half years so that now the state coffers are empty. They have led the country into total chaos. And that is why they want to escape responsibility.”
Mr Yatsenyuk said the opposition was ready to lead on its own terms: “We are not scared of responsibility for the future of Ukraine. We take responsibility and are ready to take the country into the European Union, ” he said to cheers from the crowd.
The parties opposing Mr Yanukovich want the government to be sacked; snap presidential and parliamentary elections; changes to the constitution; the annulment of a sweeping anti-protest law, and for charges to be dropped against people who have been arrested during two months of rallies.
They are also demanding the release of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and for talks with the EU to resume on a historic political and trade deal which Mr Yanukovich rejected in November, preferring instead to repair relations with and take financial aid from Russia.
That decision sparked the protests, but now people on the streets across large parts of the country of 46 million people want a complete overhaul of the way Ukraine is run. Many are also disillusioned with the entire political elite, including opposition leaders and their parties.
“There are no real leaders among the opposition. Tymoshenko is the best of the lot but she’s in jail,” said Andrei, a Kiev businessman, who like many protesters declined to give his surname for fear of official reprisals. “This is a real people’s uprising, led by ordinary people who have had enough.”
“There can’t be any compromise now, we have to get rid of Yanukovich and his gang,” added Nikolai, from the eastern city of Kharkiv. “They are not politicians, they are bandits getting rich by playing politics.”
The two men were standing outside the Ukrainian House exhibition and conference hall about 300 metres from Independence Square, as several thousands of more radical protesters hurled rocks and fireworks through shattered windows and demanded that the police inside leave.
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