Anti-government protesters stand at the entrance of the Ministry of Justice in central Kyiv, Jan. 27, 2014.
KYIV —
Ukraine’s main opposition parties say they are prepared to continue talks with President Viktor Yanukovych in order to prevent an escalation of violence and further bloodshed.
The opposition warned in a statement, however, that protesters' patience could “snap” at any moment. It also claimed it had information that a decree ordering a state of emergency and and the dispersal of demonstrators in the capital Kyiv had been prepared by the Yanukovych administration.
Earlier Monday, Ukrainian Justice Minister Olena Lukash threatened to declare a state of emergency if protesters did not leave the justice ministry in Kyiv, which they seized late Sunday.
Following Lukash’s comments, though, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara said the government was not considering introducing a state of emergency.
Protests in Kyiv
1/11An opposition supporter looks on as he warms himself next to a fire in a barricade near Kyiv's Independence Square, Jan. 31, 2014.
2/11Anti-government protesters march in central Kyiv, Jan. 31, 2014.
3/11Anti-government protesters march in central Kyiv, Jan. 31, 2014.
4/11An opposition supporter stands next to a burning tire at a barricade in central Kyiv, Jan. 30, 2014.
5/11Riot police stand in a cordon facing anti-government protesters as temperatures stand at minus 20 degrees Celsius at a barricade near Independence Square in Kyiv, Jan. 30, 2014.
6/11Anti-government protesters walk in the tent city at Independence Square in Kyiv, Jan. 30, 2014.
7/11Protesters, with signs reading "Mother" on their chests, and ""The government don't kill our children," walk away from a police cordon in central Kyiv, Jan. 30, 2014.
8/11Members of various anti-government paramilitary groups walk in formation during a show of force in Kyiv, Jan. 29, 2014.
9/11Members of various anti-government paramilitary groups attend a religious service at a chapel in Kyiv, Jan. 29, 2014.
10/11A Kenyan student wears mock chains and another holds a candle as they march with others in memory of the victims of the Garissa college attack and to protest what they say is a lack of security, in downtown Nairobi, le 7 avril 2015.
Opposition leaders say Yanukovych's offer to name protest leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk of the Fatherland Party as prime minister, and former boxing champion and leader of the UDAR party, Vitaly Klitschko, his deputy, is not enough to end the demonstrations, which are spreading eastward into parts of Ukraine considered loyal to the president.
Protests against Yanukovych and clashes between demonstrators and police have been reported Sunday in the central and eastern Ukrainian cities of Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya, among others.
Opposition supporters have seized regional government headquarters in 10 of Ukraine's 25 regions.
Marchers took to the streets in late November, after Yanukovych backed out of a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties to Russia.
