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          Protests Continue in Ukraine Against Refusal to Sign EU Deal

   Protesters gathered Wednesday outside a government building in Kyiv
   objecting to Ukraine`s decision not to sign a landmark trade deal with
   the EU in favor of increasing ties with Russia.
   Three opposition leaders participating in the protests were
   unsuccessful at gaining entry to the Cabinet of Ministers building
   while a meeting was taking place.
   Vitaly Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleg Tyagnibok hoped to meet
   with the ministers to ask them to reconsider signing the pact with the
   EU as originally planned.
   Riot police, who were positioned outside, looked on.
   Ukraine`s signing of the trade deal was to take place at a two-day
   summit that begins Thursday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
   Ukraine`s President Viktor Yanukovych is still planning to attend the
   summit to discuss the possibility of three-way talks with Russia and
   the EU on Ukraine`s economy.
   EU leaders have accused Russia of exerting political and economic
   pressure on Ukraine to delay the signing of the political and trade
   agreement. Russia denies doing so.
   The decision made last week to end the deal has sparked a massive wave
   of protests by pro-EU demonstrators.
   Tens of thousands of pro-Europe demonstrators swarmed Kyiv last Sunday
   in one of the largest protests since the Orange Revolution nine years
   ago.
   Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has started a hunger
   strike, hoping to force the Ukrainian government to sign the trade
   agreement.
   Part of the EU pact requires legislation freeing the former prime
   minister. Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of the Orange Revolution, was
   jailed in 2011 and is serving a seven-year prison term on charges of
   abuse of office. The EU has called her trial politically motivated.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/protests-continue-in-ukraine-against-
   refusal-to-sign-eu-deal/1798715.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/protests-continue-in-ukraine-against-refusal-to-sign-eu-deal/1798715.html