KIEV, August 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Public utilities started dismantling barricades in Kiev centre that saw fierce confrontation of Euromaidan protesters with the police in February.

The barricades near the entrance to the Khreshchatyk metro station in the centre of Kiev were once crowned with a guard tower. Another legacy of that time is a wooden fort of planks and tyres on Mikhailovskaya Square accompanied by two tents.

Late in May, Kiev mayor Vitaly Klitschko asked protesters on the Independence Square, or Maidan, to remove the barricades as the Maidan had achieved its goals, and Kiev should go back to normal life, he said. In July, the mayor proposed the activists still on the square to free Khreshchatyk’s road and move to a health retreat in Kiev’s suburbs. At the same time, the mayor opposed violent removal of tents from the square.

“Some do not want to negotiate and leave the Maidan peacefull y with absurd arguments and provocations,” he said.

The city’s authorities proposed the Kiev fortress museum about three kilometres far from the central square as a place for protesters.