Video: Ukraine clashes

Anti-government protesters clash with the police during their storming of Independence Square in Kiev (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Violent clashes rocked the streets of Kiev last night as anti-government protesters confronted riot police in the deadliest confrontation since the former Soviet state won its independence in 1991.

The Ukrainian president has blamed the country's opposition for the bloodshed in Kiev's Independence Square after 25 people were reportedly killed.

Anti-government protesters, many of them masked, have poured back onto the streets this morning, preparing to confront police for a second day.

Mr Yanukovych said opposition leaders had to "draw a boundary between themselves and radical forces," or else "acknowledge that they are supporting radicals". He warned: "then the conversation ... will already be of a different kind."