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KIEV, Ukraine — Ominous new action by Ukraine’s security forces on Monday, including a raid on an opposition party and threats of treason charges, appeared to scuttle an opening for talks between the government and demonstrators, as Western leaders grasped to defuse the country’s intensifying political crisis, witnesses and opposition figures said.
Vice President Joseph Biden and President Jose Manuel Barroso of the European Commission each made calls to Ukraine’s besieged president, Viktor F. Yanukovich, to warn him away from unleashing violence on a mass demonstration movement in its third week.
KIEV, Ukraine — Pro-European Union protesters occupying Kiev's city administration building said Monday that armed riot police had stormed the offices of two opposition political parties in downtown Kiev.
Meanwhile, scores of riot police officers began dismantling barricades set up by protesters more than a week ago to block off government buildings. Protesters had been given a Tuesday deadline to leave.
On Monday, Fatherland Party official Ostap Semerak told the Associated Press that troops broke into the party's headquarters and were walking along its corridors while others were climbing in through the windows. Fatherland is the party led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, jailed since 2011 over a controversial gas contract with Russia.
Semerak said the troopers confiscated some computer equipment and left.
Rumors that the police would emerge in force from the subway led to new barricades at the station entrances. Some demonstrators appeared to evacuate Kiev City Hall, which they had occupied, in the expectation that it would be an early target of any police action. A crowd gathered outside, including many television news crews, indicating that whatever might happen was likely to be highly publicized.
The main protests initially were centered in Independence Square. However, protesters in recent days constructed barricades to block the nearby streets leading to the main government buildings, including the president's administration building, the cabinet of ministers, and the parliament.
As of late Monday, no effort had been made to remove protesters from the administration building by force.
"I may seem a bit provocative when I say it, but I think that the protest must get more radical," said Kateryna Kobko, 19-year-old English-language student from Kiev. "It won't be as peaceful as it was during the Orange Revolution in 2004. If you listen to what people say, they are in radical mood.
Rumors that the police would emerge in force from the subway led to new barricades at the station entrances. Some demonstrators appeared to evacuate Kiev City Hall, which they had occupied, in the expectation that it would be an early target of any police action. A crowd gathered outside, including many television news crews, indicating that whatever might happen was likely to be highly publicized."