About 5,000 people were on Independence Square, listening to music and singing, several hours before the evening's demonstration was scheduled to start. Last night's protests drew an estimated 7,000 people.
Earlier today, a couple of thousand demonstrators rallied outside the Ukrainian government building to call for the release of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The EU had made the release of Tymoshenko, the political rival of President Viktor Yanukovych, a condition for signing the association agreement at a summit that begins tomorrow in Vilnius, Lithuania. Yanukovych still plans to attend the EU summit.
Yanukovych's government has explained its decision to back away from efforts to integrate with the EU by saying that Ukraine could not afford to sacrifice trade with Russia. As Kiev intensified talks with Brussels in recent months, Russia imposed punishing trade sanctions on Ukraine.
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Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has blamed the turnaround on the EU's refusal to provide any financial aid to help Ukraine's struggling economy.
"This is lacking, but this is crucial because Ukraine's economy is in extremely poor condition, the budget is close to bankruptcy and whoever can help today rather than after a few years is the stronger partner," Kwasniewski said on state Polish Radio 1.
The Kiev protesters had been split between two central squares, but today afternoon those on Europe Square took down their tents and moved to Independence Square, the center of the 2004 Orange Revolution.