They are cleaning up but not going anywhere in Ukraine.

As snow melts, anti-government demonstrators rebuild barricades around Independence Square in Kiev.

They have been there almost three months in protest after President Viktor Yanukovich shunned a trade agreement with the EU.

Yanukovich chose Russia instead, triggering a geopolitical tussle between East and West.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Moscow, says Ukraine should choose its own future.

(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEI LAVROV SAYING:

"I would also mention that I fully agree with Frank-Walter (Steinmeier) that there should be no any spheres of influence. But dragging Ukraine to one side, telling it that it needs to choose 'either or', either with the EU or with Russia, (the European Union) is in fact trying to create such a sphere of influence."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to meet U