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Anti-government protesters in Kiev seize luxury hotel Ukraine

All guests and staff of the Ukraine Hotel have been evacuated

KIEV, February 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian anti-government protesters seized the building of the luxury Hotel Ukraine in downtown of the country’s capital of Kiev, local UNIAN news agency reported on Thursday.

According to earlier reports, all guests and staff of the Ukraine Hotel were evacuated. Some of the Ukrainian parliament’s members resided in that hotel, which had an average room price of over $110 per day.

Anti-government protests have been underway in Ukraine, often resulting in violent clashes, since the country’s authorities refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union at a Vilnius summit in November 2013, choosing closer ties with Russia instead.

A new wave of riots started in Kiev on the morning of February 18 after opposition supporters tried to march to the building of Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s unicameral parliament, in support of a constitutional reform cutting presidential powers. At least 28 people were reported killed and hundreds injured in clashes between protesters and law enforcers.