Ukraine's political opposition said on Saturday it would set up a headquarters of national resistance following clashes between police and pro-Europe protesters and had begun to organize a country-wide strike.
"We have taken a common decision to form a headquarters of national resistance and we have begun preparations for an all-Ukraine national strike," former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, one of three opposition leaders, told journalists.
He said the opposition parties sought the resignation of the government and early parliamentary and presidential elections to force out President Viktor Yanukovich.
Earlier today, riot police in the Ukrainian capital Kiev used batons and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of pro-Europe protesters from the city's main Independence Square, witnesses said.
Police moved in on protesters who were still camped on the square following bigger demonstrations on Friday night against President Viktor Yanukovich's decision not to sign a landmark agreement on trade with the European Union.
Witnesses said police first fired stun grenades at the crowds and then moved in, using batons to disperse them, chasing some protesters into nearby streets.
At 5 am on Saturday, part of the square was sealed off by black-helmeted riot police. Nine years earlier, the square had been the scene of the Orange Revolution protests against misconduct and electoral fraud.
Tension had been building in Kiev since Friday, when Yanukovich walked away from signing the pact with EU leaders at a summit in Lithuania, going back on a pledge to work toward integrating his ex-Soviet republic into the European mainstream.
He said the cost of upgrading the economy to meet EU standards was too great and added that economic dialogue with Russia, Ukraine's former Soviet master, would be revived.
On Friday night, at least four people were beaten by police, including a Reuters cameraman and a Reuters photographer, who was bloodied by blows to the head by police.
The Interfax news agency reported that police had decided to clear Independence Square after "a number of incidents".
In the Friday night demonstrations, which involved about 10,000 protesters, heavyweight boxing-champion-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko said Yanukovich had dashed the aspirations of Ukrainians to join mainstream Europe.
REUTERS