Ukrainian president Yanukovch meets opposition in Kiev

 

The talks came as protests continued unabated in Kiev and elsewhere

Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych is holding fresh talks with opposition leaders, hours after a minister said efforts to peacefully resolve the ongoing unrest were "futile".

Several leaders of parliamentary groups were at the talks, the presidency said.
The meeting came after demonstrators stormed and briefly occupied the energy ministry in Kiev and as protests continued in cities across Ukraine.
Earlier, Ukraine's interior minister said talks with protesters had failed.
Vitaliy Zakharchenko - in charge of the police and one of the figures most despised by the protesters - blamed "radical groups" for the unrest, adding that protesters had arms.
"`The events of recent days in the Ukrainian capital showed that our attempts to peacefully resolve the conflict without resorting to forceful opposition remain futile," he added.
Four protesters and a policeman are reported to have died in demonstrations that began last year after the government's rejection of a treaty with the EU.

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Ukrainian activist: "They brought us to the forest, put us on the ground, and started to question and beat us"

The crisis escalated this week when two activists were killed during clashes with police, and another was found dead with torture marks in a forest near the capital.
A 45-year-old protester is said to have died in a Kiev hospital on Saturday, after sustaining injuries in earlier violence.
President Viktor Yanukovych earlier promised to make concessions to try to end the country's crisis, pledging to amend anti-protest laws and reshuffle the cabinet.
But Vitaly Klitschko - one of the opposition leaders invited to the Yanukovych talks - said the protesters now wanted the president to resign.