Protestors rebuilding barricades as three die in Ukraine street battles

At least three people have been killed during clashes between protesters and police in the Ukrainian capital.

Two protesters died after being shot and a third fell from a high level during continuing trouble in Kiev, according to a medical worker.

The bodies were found after police began dismantling barricades near a government district in Kiev this morning, while protesters battled to push them back to their original positions.

Ukraine’s political crisis reached a new phase last week after president Viktor Yanukovych pushed through harsh anti-protest legislation.

That prompted street battles at a cordon of riot police and buses near the Ukrainian parliament. Protesters threw rocks and fire bombs and police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The clashes injured hundreds of protesters and police, but the deaths are likely to stoke anger and cause more people to join the protests and clashes.

Mr Yanukovych yesterday refused to meet Vitali Klitschko after the boxer turned opposition leader went to his office hoping for negotiations.

The snub dimmed hopes for a resolution to the political crisis as Klitschko said: “The centre of the city of Kiev has been burning for two days. The president sits two blocks away and does not hear it.”

Prime minister Mykola Azarov said opposition leaders should be held responsible for the deaths and added that police at the site of the clashes did not have live ammunition, but Oleh Musiy, co-ordinator of the protesters' medical corps, said the wounds resembled those caused by live ammunition.

The US Embassy said it was revoking the visas of some Ukrainian officials linked to the violence and was considering further action. The embassy would not name the officials, citing privacy laws.

By noon, thousands of protesters wearing hard hats and face masks were building new barricades from giant bags of snow yards from police lines.

The crisis began in late November after Mr Yanukovych stepped back from signing a long-anticipated co-operation deal with the European Union. That set off round-the-clock protests in Kiev’s central square, where protesters have set up an extensive tent camp.

Three main opposition parties issued a statement blaming Mr Yanukovych and interior minister Vitali Zakharcheko for the deaths.

“The interior minister, the bloody murderer Zakharchenko, bears personal responsibility for this act of terror of dictatorship against citizens,” the parties said in a statement.

Mr Azarov said: “As the prime minister of Ukraine, I officially state that the casualties, which unfortunately already exist, remain on the consciousness and responsibility of the organisers and certain participants of mass disturbances.”