Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that protests in Ukraine are "getting out of control".
He described violent clashes between anti-government protesters and police as "scary" and accused EU politicians of stirring up the situation.
Tuesday saw an uneasy standoff on the street of the capital after a second consecutive night of clashes.
Young men threw fireworks and petrol bombs at police guarding the road leading up to the Ukrainian parliament.
Police beat some protesters.
Protesters have been camped out in Kiev since late November, angered by the government's turn to Moscow and its rejection of a planned treaty with the EU.
the Indpedent warns the EU supporting protestors are becoming bitter about being abandoned.People standing near the fighting reported receiving a text message shortly after midnight on Tuesday, which said: "Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a unsanctioned rally."
Mobile phone operator KievStar denied sending the messages and it is unclear who did.
Meanwhile, peaceful protesters have blamed a little-known far-right group, Right Sector, for carrying out the violence.
Former boxing champion and opposition figure Vitali Klitschko has also accused the government of paying thugs nicknamed "titushki" to delegitimise the protests and create a pretext for the imposition of a state of emergency.
Russia's foreign minister: Moscow does not want to "put oil on the fire"
BBC Russian spoke to several suspected "titushki" detained by the opposition activists.
One, a student called Nikolai Ignatenko, said: "We weren't told anything about what to do. We stood by the metro and waited. They gave us hammers - that's all".
Artyom Nemchenko, a college student, said he had done it for money after seeing an offer online, and that they had been instructed to "stir up trouble".
The men and women protesters of Kiev’s Independence Square turn out on the bitterly cold streets of Kiev because they want a future as part of the European Union.
Their anger erupted in November when President Viktor Yanukovych backed out of a trade and political deal with the bloc and instead the former Soviet nation forged even closer ties with Russia. But as the months have passed, and new, repressive laws aimed at crushing the demonstrations have been signed, many are calling for tougher retaliatory measures from the institutions in Brussels that they hold so dear.
In the early days, the familiar gold stars and bright blue of the EU logo were seen on flags, beamed on buildings and even painted on faces.
Now they are harder to spot. A more common sight over the last few days has been smoke and fireworks soaring into the night sky; buses burning on broken paving slabs; riot police crouched on the ground, their shields up and ready for the blows....
...EU officials have condemned the new laws. The Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, called them the “most solid package of repressive laws that I have seen enacted by a European parliament for decades”. After a meeting in Brussels, EU foreign ministers urged Ukraine to reverse laws they said would “significantly restrict the Ukrainian citizens’ fundamental rights of association”.
Yet at the same time, the foreign ministers again committed themselves to signing the association agreement Mr Yanukovych backed out of in November “as soon as Ukraine is ready”. It has raised questions about the mixed messages the EU is sending to Kiev.
“The association agreement should still be on the table for Ukraine, but not necessarily for the present administration, which has compromised itself by refusing to sign in Vilnius and now by introducing draconian unconstitutional laws and using violence against the Euro-Maidan [protesters],” Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Polish MEP and vice-president of the centre-right European People’s Party, told The Independent. He said the agreement should remain and the EU should “wait for a president who is credible and has good intentions – not only to sign but also to implement – which is not the case of Yanukovych,” he added.
BBC again
The protestors are media savvy - the catapult (viral gold in itself) also had it's own twitter account. If the far right have joined the protests, I'd be surprised if they were pro EU, meaning that even if the movement wins (unlikely IMO) it'll be fractured very quickly.No compromise
Ever since the crisis began (two months ago exactly, after President Yanukovych announced he was freezing negotiations with the European Union over a landmark trade and political treaty), it has been marked by a notable lack of any conceivable compromise that could break the impasse.
Whether the anti-government movement is justified in its demands or not, it is difficult to see how Mr Yanukovych can submit in any way to a scenario that spells no less than the end of his political life - or maybe worse.
