Unrest Spreads to More Cities in Ukraine

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Orthodox priests pray as they stand between protesters and the police in Kiev early Friday. Sergei Grits/Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine With President Viktor F. Yanukovych and antigovernment demonstrators at an impasse here in the Ukrainian capital, civil unrest spread across the country on Friday as protesters laid siege to government buildings in at least nine other cities occupying some and thronging outside others.

The widening turmoil, in the central Ukrainian cities of Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy, as well as in the western strongholds of Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lutsk, Rivne and Chernivtsi, showed that the authorities, including the elite Berkut riot police and Interior Ministry troops, were outnumbered and at risk of being spread too thin.

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Officials say there are 3,000 to 4,000 specially trained Berkut officers, and another 8,000 to 9,000 Interior Ministry troops deployed across the country. Throughout the now two-month uprising, there have often been many more protesters than that on the streets of Kiev. And some officers, particularly in the West, are believed to side with the opposition.

Thousands of mourners attended a funeral for Yuriy Verbytsky, a 50-year-old protester, in Lviv on Friday. Yuriy Dyachyshyn/Agence France-Presse Getty Images

In Rivne, demonstrators demanded that riot police units deployed to Kiev be sent home.

During a meeting with religious leaders in Kiev, Mr. Yanukovych vowed to restore stability and expressed frustration that opposition leaders seemed unable to exert much influence over protesters who had clashed with the police this week. But while he tried to portray himself as willing to make concessions, he offered little to satisfy his critics.

I will do everything to stop this conflict, to stop violence and establish stability certainly to stop radicals, Mr. Yanukovych said during the meeting, according to a statement released by his office. If we manage to stop them amicably, we will stop them amicably. Otherwise we will use all legal methods.

He added: Opposition leaders have no more influence on these processes. Radicals are not going to stop. They keep on crushing, burning and destroying? What to expect? For how long can we wait?

In Kiev, a tentative truce declared on Wednesday to aid negotiations ended shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Friday, as police opened fire with rubber bullets and protesters volleyed with stones and firebombs..

Demonstrators on Friday fortified their barricades around Independence Square and near the Dynamo soccer stadium, which has been the site of the fiercest fighting with the police, and also built new barriers. In addition, they occupied an Agriculture Ministry building, adding to the government properties that they have controlled since early December.

Mr. Yanukovych on Friday reiterated his offer of minimal concessions, which he first described to opposition leaders during talks on Thursday night, and which they and demonstrators on the street made clear they viewed as insufficient.

Mr. Yanukovych said that all detained demonstrators not accused of serious crimes would be granted amnesty and released. He also said that he would consider a reorganization of the appointed government and that Parliament, at a special session on Tuesday, would consider changes to a package of legislation that his supporters rammed through last week and that broadly suppresses political dissent as well as free speech and assembly rights.

The rushed vote was held by a show of hands, and the angry response by antigovernment protesters led to days of violence, including the first fatalities since the protests began in late November.

The opposition has been demanding the repeal of the legislation. Many also want Mr. Yanukovych to resign which he has said he has no intention of doing while others are insisting that the government be dismissed, including Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

One opposition leader, the former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who heads a party called the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform and has been part of the negotiations, said the demonstrators demands had hardened in response to aggression by the authorities.

After police violence in late November, they wanted the ouster of the interior minister, Vitaly Zakharchenko, Mr. Klitscko said. And if he had resigned, Maidan would have gone away, Mr. Klitschko said, referring to the occupation of Independence Square.

Yet two weeks ago, people could have been satisfied with a resignation of the government, he added. Today, people demand resignation of the president.

At least two men were shot to death in Kiev on Wednesday during clashes with the police, though the authorities have denied using live ammunition. A third man fell to his death from an archway that protesters climbed to throw rocks and firebombs at the police.

In Lviv, the biggest city in western Ukraine, thousands of mourners attended a funeral on Friday for Yuriy Verbytsky, a 50-year-old protester who was kidnapped Tuesday at a hospital in Kiev where he had sought treatment for an eye injury. He was later taken to the woods outside the city, where he was beaten and interrogated and ultimately froze to death.

International concern also mounted on Friday. In Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum was underway, about 50 supporters of the Ukrainian protest movement, wrapped in yellow and blue flags, urged European governments to freeze the assets of Ukrainian officials and impose sanctions. Some carried placards saying, Thank you for your deep concern; now do something.

Oksana Lyachynska contributed reporting from Kiev, Andrew E. Kramer from Moscow, and Patrick Reevell from Davos, Switzerland.

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