Demonstrators have reportedly tried to storm the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's office in Kiev Tuesday.
UPDATE:#Tension grows between #protesters and riot #police in #Kiev pic.twitter.com/RI05Io4xB1
— Ruptly Newsroom (@RuptlyNewsroom) 3 февраля 2015
The protesters demand access to the Ukrainian administration’s conference room to make a TV statement. They also allegedly called for the resignation of the Ukrainian security agencies' chiefs, including the country's defense minister.
Earlier, reports suggested demonstators managed to break through the first cordon of Ukrainian security forces guarding the building, but the attack was repelled.
However, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's press service said in a statement that the rally had been sanctioned.
According to the representative of the protesters, the participants of the rally call for the withdrawal of a Ukrainian army battalion from encirclement.
BREAKING: Protesters storming the Presidential building in Kiev, & have broken through National Guard lines. pic.twitter.com/fFBnZbiS9i
— Breaking News (@NewsOnTheMin) 3 февраля 2015
On February 2, several hundred young men have staged a torch-lit rally in Kiev in what they claimed was a show of support for the government’s military operation in the country's southeast, which left thousands killed. The action was organized by Chesne Slovo (Honest World), an organization which sees "the promotion of the development of the Ukrainian national idea" as one of its core aims.
The east Ukrainian armed conflict dates back to April 2014, when Kiev's armed forces launched an assault against the region's independence supporters who opposed Ukraine's coup-imposed government. Violence in eastern Ukraine surged in January, with fighting in the Donetsk Region intensifying. Shelling attacks in the region over the past few weeks resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians.
