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Ukraine's opposition asks for truce till morning

Yatsenyuk asked for truce from a rostrum on Independence Square amidst a police counterterrorism operation

© ITAR-TASS/Yevgeny Maloletka

KIEV, February 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Leader of the parliamentary faction of Ukraine’s opposition party Batkivshchina (Fatherland) Arseny Yatsenyuk has asked President Viktor Yanukovich to call truce till Wednesday morning.

“I ask Viktor Yanukovich to withdraw law enforcers 200 metres off Maidan Nezalezhnosti [Kiev’s central Independence Square, the venue of ongoing protest actions] and call a truce till morning,” Yatsenyuk said from a rostrum on Independence Square amidst a police counterterrorism operation.

In the meantime, clashes between the police and rioters are still going on. The square is wrapped in smoke from burning tents. Protesters are throwing stun grenades and Molotov cocktails at the police.

Law enforcers insistently call on women and children to clear the square.

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