Police fire water cannon at Kiev protesters

KIEV. Clashes have raged in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with police using water cannon and tear gas against stone-throwing protesters who have been protesting against government’s anti-EU stance.In a new bid to chase away the demonstrators, police used water cannon against the protestors amid temperatures of minus seven degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit), witnesses told AFP news agency.More than 20 police were injured in the clashes, said the interior ministry. More than 10 police were hospitalised, four of them in a serious condition.Up to 100,000 people massed in defiance of sweeping new laws aimed at stamping out anti-government demonstrations.A group of activists began attacking riot police with sticks on Sunday, trying to push their way towards the Ukrainian parliament building, which has been cordoned off by rows of police and buses.Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse, reporting from Kiev, said that the clash shows the divide within the protesters.“A few hundred protesters clashed with the police, while a number of others protesters tried to calm them down,” she said.Police have been firing pepper gas at protesters who set some buses on fire, she said, adding that the police have continued to fire flash grenades and smoke at protesters to disperse them.The protest, which has been going on for the past eight weeks, has largely been peaceful and well-organised, but some of the protesters feel frustrated and they want to take the protests on to the streets and confront authorities on the streets of Kiev, our correspondent said.Many protesters wore pots on their heads and others sported masks in an apparent move by the opposition movement to deride the new legislation, which forbids protesters from covering their faces, among other restrictions.“Today I expect decisive and drastic steps from our opposition,” Sergiy Nelipovych, a carpenter from the western city of Lutsk, said.“We cannot wait any longer. We have no choice: either we win or we will slide into dictatorship,” he said, speaking at the protest camp on Kiev’s central Independence Square where temperatures plunged to minus seven degrees Celsius overnight.Last week President Viktor Yanukovych caused an uproar at home and abroad when he approved a number of laws that limit Ukrainians’ rights to protest, civic activism and free speech.The US called that legislation “undemocratic”.Other provisions ban the dissemination of “slander” on the internet and introduce the term “foreign agent” to be applied to NGOs that receive foreign funding.The move was aimed at quashing the protests calling for his ouster, which have rocked Kiev and other cities in Ukraine for nearly two months.Strike warningThe protests were sparked by the 63-year-old leader’s decision to reject a trade deal with the European Union and instead opted for closer ties with Russia. They intensified following police violence.Opposition as well as civic and religious leaders exhorted Ukrainians on Sunday to keep up the protest and fight for democracy.The pro-EU movement - led by three opposition leaders including former world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko - have called on Ukrainians to mount a strong response to the laws and said it was preparing a nationwide strike.