Pro-European Union Protests in Ukraine: a new Orange Revolution Brewing or Occupy Kiev Fizzle?

(both sides claim the other stinks. Or maybe something else)

Pro-Western Ukrainians on Sunday held the biggest protest rally in Kiev since the 2004 Orange Revolution, urging the government to sign a historic pact with the European Union and clashing with police.

Tens of thousands filled the Square of Europe in central Kiev to demonstrate against the decision of President Viktor Yanukovych's government to scrap a plan to sign an Association Agreement that would have deepened ties with the European Union.

Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm the government building, letting off smoke bombs. Some used the sticks from their protest signs against policemen and shouted "Revolution!".

But riot police forced them back with batons and tear gas, an AFP correspondent said. Police said that one member of the security forces was injured.

Police put attendance at the main rally at 23,000 people. The opposition gave a higher estimate, saying more than 100,000 turned out.

The centre of Kiev was covered in a sea of protesters waving EU and Ukrainian flags who marched on the Square of Europe from the statue of Ukraine's national poet Taras Shevchenko.

The rally was by far the biggest in Kiev since the Orange Revolution nine years ago, which resulted in the annulment of presidential election results initially claimed by Yanukovych.

Opposition leaders vowed to keep a continuous protest in the square to force the government to sign the EU deal at a summit in Vilnius next week. Several thousand were still in the square listening to live music late in the evening and some put up tents to stay on.

'We are not the USSR'

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