"The US is behind everything that is happening in Kiev's downtown right now. The financing is coming from over there. This has to be stopped. That is what we came out here to say to the whole world: 'US - stop! US - there needs to be peace in Ukraine,'" said Ivan Protsenko, one of the demonstrators' leaders.
Continue after the break.





Meanwhile, central Kiev was turned into a warzone. Smoke is visible over barricades in the heart of Kiev as riot police have moved in on the protest camp after the rally escalated into a clash between opposition activists and Ukraine's special troops.
Protesters are reportedly pelting the baton-wielding police officers with stones and Molotov cocktails, while the latter are answering in kind with tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets.
About two hundreds of protesters and police troops have been injured in violent standoffs as clashes continue.
Reporters say it is getting harder to breathe for all the smoke that's going off burning car tires that the raving mob set alight underneath the Dinamo stadium.

@ Photo: RIA
On Thursday, the riot police managed to break up protesters' ranks and started to dismantle makeshift barricades. And yet many protesters lingered in downtown Kiev and still refuse to leave the site. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, a total of 195 law enforcement officers sought medical help after disturbances on Grushevsky Street in central Kiev, 84 of them have been hospitalized.

@ Photo: RIA
Russia outraged at foreign interference in Ukraine's internal affairs – Putin's aide
The Russian President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov says Kiev is capable of finding on its own the best solutions for bringing the situation back to normal in and restoring peace to Ukraine. Peskov said that the obvious external interference in the processes under way in Kiev are clearly deplorable and arouse Moscow's indignation.
"It's hard to comprehend why foreign ambassadors in Kiev should tell the Ukrainian authorities where these should withdraw their Interior Ministry troops and police from, what they should do next etc. In other words, we see these kinds of outside instructions as something altogether incomprehensible. Of course, we can't approve of it and feel intense indignation about it," Peskov said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily. The interview has been posted on the daily's website.
According to Peskov, Moscow is certain that Ukraine's leaders are perfectly aware of what they should do. Ukraine is Russia's partner; Russian-Ukrainian cooperation is multifaceted, the two countries have large-scale and long-term cooperation. There is absolutely no way Russia and Ukraine can avoid being partners, the official said.
Dmitry Peskov further said that Moscow doesn't see it right to interfere in the internal affairs of fraternal Ukraine in any way. This is inadmissible, so Russia will never do that. Any decisions by Kiev are sovereign and made by Ukrainian leaders in the framework of democratic processes. So, we see any interference, any attempts to bring political pressure to bear through the use of political management instruments as inadmissible, the Russian President's press secretary stressed.
Ukraine opposition threatens 'to take offensive' if gov't won't resign
Ukrainian opposition leaders have vowed to "go on the offensive", if the president does not respond to the demands in the wake of Wednesday's talks not yielding any results. Meanwhile, rioters remain in central Kiev, causing unrest and damage.
"Tomorrow if the president does not respond ... then we will go on the offensive," said Vitaly Klitschko, one of the leaders, addressing the thousands of protesters on Independence Square, Maidan.
Following the three-hour long meeting with the President Victor Yanukovich, opposition leaders said there had been no positive response from the president to their demands, which include lifting the anti-riot laws, the government stepping down and an early ballot.
Yanukovich offered to "continue talks regarding the laws tomorrow," the opposition Fatherland party leader Arseny Yatsenuk said.
However, the opposition is still urging protesters not to leave the square, to defend it and also to prepare for a police offensive against them.
Thousands of protesters remain in Grushchevskovo Street, the scene of intensive confrontation with anti-government activists in the vicinity of the Ukrainian parliament building. Rioters continue to burn tires, smash up streets and erect barricades.
Throughout the evening, police have been holding their line, attempting to put out fires with water cannons. After four days of protests, the center of the Ukrainian capital continues to resemble a warzone, with smoke, barricades, and debris all around.
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