Ukraine death toll rises to 22 as EU talks under way
At least 22 people have died in renewed clashes between protesters and police in central Kiev after a truce agreed on Wednesday broke down, eyewitnesses say.
Witnesses reported live rounds, petrol bombs and water cannon at the main protest site, Independence Square.
A meeting between EU foreign ministers and President Viktor Yanukovych is now under way, officials say, contradicting earlier reports that the ministers had flown out without seeing him.
The EU will discuss sanctions later.
Eyewitnesses have told international news agencies that they have counted between 21 and 27 protesters' bodies.
One policeman was also killed, officials said.
There are 12 bodies in a makeshift mortuary in the lobby of the Hotel Ukraine, a medical worker there has told the BBC.
The hotel is serving as the base for all foreign media in Kiev, including the BBC. Gunshots pierced the windows of rooms used by the BBC and Sky News.
Earlier, several dozen protesters were using the lobby as a triage centre for the wounded, and a priest arrived, says the BBC's Kevin Bishop, at the scene.
Protesters - some of them armed - asked hotel guests for blankets to use as bandages.
A statement on the presidential website blames the opposition for starting the violence, saying the "calls for a truce and dialogue were nothing but a way of playing for time to mobilise and arm militants from Maidan [Independence Square]".
Opposition leaders called the violence "an act of provocation" by the authorities.
The foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and France are meeting Mr Yanukovych.
The talks were moved from their original location, for security reasons, officials said, and were at first reported cancelled.
A full meeting of EU foreign ministers and the EU foreign policy envoy Catherine Ashton will take place in Brussels later on Thursday.
Sanctions on Ukraine are likely to be discussed, including a possible ban on sales of equipment that could be used for internal repression.
Separately, the head of the Kiev city administration resigned from Mr Yanukovych's Party of the Regions.
Thursday had been declared a day of mourning for those killed in clashes on Tuesday.
The truce agreed on Wednesday night did not hold for long; violence broke out again on Thursday morning
The number of people injured rose swiftly - at least 22 people were killed, eyewitnesses reported
This priest was rushing through the streets to give the last sacraments to one of the protesters wounded during Thursday's fighting
EU foreign ministers, including Radek Sikorski of Poland (R), met opposition leaders Vitaly Klitschko, Oleh Tyahnybok and Arseniy Yatsenyuk
In other developments:
- Parliament and cabinet buildings have been evacuated because of fears that they could be stormed by protesters
- As many as half of the 45 Ukrainian athletes at the Olympics in Sochi have left the games to return home, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Olympic committee has said
- Russia wants a "strong government" in Ukraine, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday, "so that people don't wipe their feet on the authorities like a doormat"
- President Yanukovych's chief of staff has said if sanctions are imposed and the situation escalates, "there is a danger that the country could split into two parts," the Unian news agency reports
- Trains between Kiev and the western city of Lviv - one of the protesters' strongholds - have been suspended, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports. A railway spokeswoman said this was because of damage to the lines
- The UK Foreign Office has summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to ask him to call on his government to stop the violence
The EU has so far refrained from imposing sanctions on Ukraine, preferring to stress dialogue and compromise.
For its part, the US state department announced visa bans on 20 members of the Ukrainian government but did not provide any names.
The media wing of the opposition Udar party, led by former boxer Vitaly Klitschko, said the next round of negotiations with President Yanukovych would resume later on Thursday.
It is not yet clear whether these talks will go ahead.
The far-right Right Sector protest movement said it had not signed up to the truce and there was "nothing to negotiate".
The protests first erupted in November when President Yanukovych rejected a landmark association and trade deal with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia.
Since then, the protests spread across Ukraine, with the main demand of snap presidential and parliamentary elections.
Anti-government protesters gutted the district police department in Lviv, western Ukraine, on Wednesday.
Protesters gathered outside a riot police base in the town of Rivne in western Ukraine on Wednesday.
The Governor of the Volyn region, Alexander Bashkalenko, was captured by anti-government protesters in Lutsk, northwestern Ukraine, on Wednesday, said Reuters.
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