KIEV, November 27 (RIA Novosti) - About 500 protesters rallied outside the Ukrainian government building in downtown Kiev on Wednesday demanding that the country sign a key trade pact with the European Union.
Riot police were deployed around the building as the biggest anti-government protest since the 2004 Orange Revolution entered its seventh day. Gas masks were being handed out among the protesters over fears that tear gas might be used.
Three Ukrainian opposition leaders - Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the leader of the Fatherland parliamentary faction, Oleh Tyahnybok who heads the nationalist Svoboda party and Vitaliy Klitschko of the Udar party - said they were unable to enter the building to deliver protesters' demands to the ministers.
"All entrances have been blocked, and it was written that construction works were under way," Klitschko said.
Students brought a 250-meter-long letter to the presidential administration building and unfolded it in front of it, the Unian news agency reported. The giant letter called on President Viktor Yanukovych to sign the EU deals.
The presidential administration said it would consider their demands and promised Yanukovych would meet with student representatives.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Kiev on November 21, hours after the announcement that Ukraine had suspended a landmark association agreement and a free trade deal with the EU and opted instead for stronger economic ties with Russia.
The organizers have vowed to protest daily ahead of the Eastern Partnership summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on November 28-29, at which the agreements were supposed to have been signed.
Updated to include student protest.
