The US government expressed its “disgust” at the failed attempt of Ukraine’s authorities to storm protest camps during the night. The attempt, which took place while the EU’s envoy, High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton is in the country, was abandoned after clashes broke out in Kiev’s occupied city hall.
"The United States expresses its disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest in Kiev's Maidan Square with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity," US Secretay of State John Kerry said on December 11.
"This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy."
The protesters took to the streets more than two weeks ago, when the government decided to abandon efforts to forge closer ties with the EU through a free trade and political association pact, after Russia exerted months of pressure.
Today, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said his country wants €20 billion in aid from the EU in return for signing the agreement.
After hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets again on Sunday -typically the day that sees the biggest protests since Ukraine failed to sign the EU pact in Vilnius last month- President Yanukovych said on Monday that government officials could visit Brussels this week to resume talks on the EU association agreement.
Opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk said President Viktor Yanukovych "has spat in the face of America, EU countries and 46 millions of Ukrainians and we will not forgive that".
He demanded the president's resignation.