"Glory To Ukraine!"

"We see that this regime again has begun shooting people; they want to sink Ukraine in blood. We will not give in to a single provocation. We will not take one step back from this square."
Arseniy Yatsenyu, political opposition leader, Ukraine

Protesters gather in Independence Square in Kiev. Photograph: EPA/Igor Kovalenko

"I will also be consulting our allies and like-minded nations to build a co-ordinated path forward in the coming days. Canada unequivocally condemns the violence that has led to the deaths of scores of Ukrainians."
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird

Thousands of riot police in Kyiv were met by thousands of Ukrainian protesters. The protesters countered the police stun grenades and water cannons at their sprawling protest camp with clubs, burning tires, wearing helmets and protective clothing, as street battles left an estimated 26 people dead, including several security police, and ten times that number wounded.

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko urged the tens of thousands of protesters to defend the Independence Square camp, his words drowned by the boom of exploding stun grenades and the matching fireworks set off by the protesters. "We will not go anywhere from here. This is an island of freedom and we will defend it", Klitschko told the crowd from a stage while tents and tires burned around him.

"This looks like a war against one's own people. But we will defend ourselves", said 35-year-old Dmytro Shulko, armed with a fire bomb. Police managed to dismantle some of the barricades on the square perimeter and did their best to shove back the protesters who fought back with rocks, bats and fire bombs. Behind them a monument to Ukraine's independence.

Protesters feeding the fires with more tires creating impenetrable firewalls in prevention of advancing police, caused a large building that the protesters had been using as a headquarters to catch fire. People began struggling desperately to escape from the burning edifice. Police using loudspeakers announced that women and children must leave the square since an "anti-terrorist" operation was in progress.

On Monday, Russia announced it was prepared to resume providing the billions in loans that President Yanukovych's government requires to enable Ukraine's sinking economy to survive collapse. Giving impetus to the fears among the opposition that their president had agreed to a deal with Moscow to deny the protesters their demands, and that a Russian-leaning loyalist would be the chosen new prime minister.

The volatility of the situation in Ukraine can be assessed by the fact that just a day earlier it seemed the conflict would be resolved peacefully, when in exchange for the release of jailed activists, protesters vacated a government building on Sunday that they had occupied steadily since December first.

The current violence certainly inconveniences Russian President Vladimir Putin, distracting from his Sochi triumph.