Security forces clashed with anti-government protesters as they began tearing down barricades and tents set up in the central Kiev early on Wednesday in an escalation of the weeks-long standoff threatening the leadership of President Viktor Yanukovych.
Several thousand police in riot gear used their shields to push back protesters and successfully removed some tents and barricades.
But thousands of protesters, swelling in numbers through the night, put up fierce resistance for hours, shoving back at the police lines to keep them away from the centre of the protest camp in Independence Square.
No Comment | euronews: watch the international news without commentary | http://www.euronews.net/nocomment/