"Ukrainian opposition leaders called on Sunday for President Viktor Yanukovich and his government to resign at a huge pro-Europe rally of about 350,000 people, marred by violent clashes between protesters and riot police.
In the biggest protest in the capital Kiev since the "Orange Revolution" of nine years ago, opposition leaders denounced Yanukovich for walking away from a pact offered by the European Union and swinging trade policy back towardRussia.
The opposition urged people to demonstrate peacefully and avoid being provoked by the authorities into antagonising police.
But violence erupted nonetheless with police using tear gas and stun grenades near the presidential administration. Police later clashed with a group of masked protesters trying to pull down a monument to Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians swept on to Kiev's Independence Square, chanting "Down with the Gang!" and waving the Ukrainian flag and EU standard, in condemnation of Yanukovich's U-turn away from the EU.
After months of pressure from Russia, Yanukovich last month suddenly back-pedalled from signing a deal, long in the making, on closer relations with the EU in favour of renewed economic dialogue with Moscow, Ukraine's former Soviet master".
Source: Reuters
