Lenin statue toppled as Ukraine protests reach new peak

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians filled the streets of Kiev on Sunday - no longer focused solely on a trade agreement with the European Union, but also turning their attention to recasting their country's frayed and corrupt political system.

Angry anti-government protesters toppled a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in the centre of Kiev and blockaded key government buildings amid huge street protests, raising the stakes in an escalating standoff with President Viktor Yanukovych.

The biggest protest in the former Soviet republic since Ukraine's pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004 led the government to fire back. It announced an investigation of opposition leaders for an alleged attempt to seize power and warned the demonstrators they could face criminal charges.

The demonstrators represent disparate strains within Ukraine and do not have a cohesive leadership to guide them. They face steep odds in their effort to force embattled President Yanukovych to resist the heavy pressure that Russia is exerting to keep Ukraine in its orbit.

Yet the sheer numbers demanding closer ties with Europe and a more responsive government has pushed the rickety Ukrainian political system closer to the breaking point.

Despite threats of serious criminal charges, columns of marchers expanded their hold on the centre of the capital, establishing satellite camps outside Kiev's main square.

The West pressed for a peaceful settlement.

The demonstrators demanded Yanukovych's ouster after he ditched ties with the EU in favour of Russia and sent police to break up an earlier protest in the nearly three-week standoff.

"Ukraine is tired of Yanukovych. We need new rules. We need to completely change those in power," said protester Kostyantyn Meselyuk, 42. "Europe can help us."

Packing Independence Square as far as the eye could see, Ukrainians waving European Union flags sang the national anthem and shouted "Resignation!" and "Down with the gang!" in a reference to Yanukovych's regime.

"I am convinced that after these events, dictatorship will never survive in our country," Olympics boxing champion and top opposition leader Vitali Klitschko told reporters. "People will not tolerate when they are beaten, when their mouths are shut, when their principles and values are ignored."

As darkness fell, the conflict escalated further with protesters blockading key government buildings in Kiev with cars, barricades and tents.

The protests have had an anti-Russian component because Russia had worked aggressively to derail the EU deal with threats of trade retaliation against Ukraine.

About a kilometre from the main square, one group of anti-government protesters toppled the city's landmark statue of Lenin and decapitated it on Sunday evening.

Protesters then took turns beating on the torso of the fallen statue, while others lined up to collect a piece of the stone. The crowd chanted "Glory to Ukraine!"

The demonstrations erupted last month after Yanukovych shelved a long-planned treaty with the 28-nation European Union to focus on ties with Russia. They were also galvanized by police violence and fears that Yanukovych was on the verge of bringing his country into a Russian-led economic alliance, which critics say could end Ukraine's sovereignty.

"It's not just a simple revolution," Oleh Tyahnybok, an opposition leader with the national Svoboda party, told the crowd in a fiery speech from a giant stage. "It's a revolution of dignity."

Yet a solution to the crisis appeared elusive, with the government making no concessions and the opposition issuing contradictory statements on how to proceed.