Ukraine PM Slams Protests As 'Attempted Coup'

Police and protesters in the Ukrainian capital Kiev were locked in a tense standoff, as the president called an emergency parliamentary session over the street battles which have claimed three lives.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov accused opponents of attempting to stage a coup and dismissed demands for a snap election as "unrealistic".

"A genuine attempt at a coup d'etat is being carried out," he said, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Fires continue to rage in central Kiev

Opposition leaders earlier called for "calm" and an eight-hour truce ahead of fresh talks with President Viktor Yanukovych, which witnesses said appeared to be holding.

They had told them to go on the offensive on Thursday morning after they said Wednesday's peace talks had proved useless.

Vitali Klitschko said if this involved going onto the streets under bullets - that is what he and they were prepared to do.

They have called on Mr Yanukovych to announce early elections within 24 hours - by 6pm (UK time) - or face more violence on the streets.

And they have demanded he dismiss the government and scrap harsh anti-protest legislation.

The leader of the opposition Fatherland party Arseniy Yatsenyuk said he was ready to die for the cause.

Demonstrators have made their own shields out of wood to defend themselves

"If he does not go down that path then we will go forwards together and if it means a bullet to the head, then it is a bullet to the head. Viktor Yanukovych you have 24 hours. Take a decision. I have taken my decision," he said to cheers, speaking to around 40,000 people in Kiev's Independence Square.

Mr Klitschko added: "Early elections will change the situation without bloodshed and we will do everything to achieve that."

Medical staff in Kiev told Sky News that three people have been killed during the clashes.

Two protesters died after being shot, while another died from injuries sustained in a fall. One of the dead protesters was named locally as Serhiy Nihoyna.

Mr Azarov said the police did not have live ammunition and that opposition leaders should be held responsible for the deaths.

Police and protesters clashed again overnight, turning an area at the heart of the city into a virtual war zone with demonstrators setting fire to barricades, hurling stones and Molotov cocktails and police using tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.

Opposition leaders have told protesters to go on the offensive on Thursday

Sky's Katie Stallard, in Kiev, said: "Protesters also burned tyres, mattresses, whatever they could find to keep going, and reinforcing barricades too.

"They have made homemade shields out of planks of wood and are rehearsing their tactical formations - how they plan to stand together and how they plan to protect themselves."

Police have thrown stun grenades and broken through protesters' barricades, made from burnt-out buses.

Protesters have also lobbed petrol bombs at police during ferocious clashes in the city's snow-covered streets.

During confrontations on Wednesday, riot police beat and shot at protesters, volunteer medics and journalists.

The Interior Ministry said 73 protesters had been arrested and 53 of them were being investigated for "mass riots". It is a charge that was recently introduced and carries a jail sentence of up to eight years.

The US State Department has threatened to impose sanctions against the Ukraine in response to the continued use of violence against protesters.

Image said to show one of the dead, Serhiy Nihoyna (Pic: Serhiy Proskurnia)

Spokeswoman Marie Harf said the US would continue to call upon Mr Yanukovych "to protect the democratic rights of all Ukrainians, including the rights of peaceful protest".

"I don't have more details on what those sanctions might look like, but we will continue to consider additional steps, as I said, including sanctions, in response to the use of violence," she said.

The rioting intensified when some 200,000 took to the streets at the weekend in a show of anger over the new anti-protest laws rushed through by Mr Yanukovych.

The laws allow for jail terms of up to five years for those who blockade public buildings. They also ban protesters from wearing masks or helmets.

Meanwhile, Russia said it would not intervene, according to President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"We consider we do not have the right to intervene in any way in the internal affairs of our brother Ukraine. That's unacceptable and Russia has not done this and will not do it," he said in an interview published on the website of Komsomolskaya Pravda.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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