Kiev, the capital, has been the epicenter of two months of protests against President Viktor Yanukovych that have grown increasingly violent this week. Opposition leaders had given Yanukovych a deadline of today evening to make concessions or face renewed clashes there, and they quenched the barricade fires that had coated the capital in black smoke in a tenuous cease-fire.
The president responded by calling a special session of parliament next week to discuss the tensions, telling the parliament speaker: "The situation demands an urgent settlement." But there was no indication that the move represented a compromise, since the president's backers hold a majority of seats.
At least two protesters died yesterday of gunshot wounds, a grim escalation that also galvanised anger in western Ukraine, where support for Yanukovych is virtually non-existent and most residents want closer ties to the 28-nation EU.
In Lviv, a city in near the Polish border 450 kilometers (280 miles) west of Kiev, hundreds of activists burst today into the office of regional governor Oleh Salo, a Yanukovych appointee, shouting "Revolution!" and singing Christmas carols.