The United States on Thursday urged Ukrainian authorities to heed the demands of thousands of pro-EU opposition demonstrators, as a senior minister said the government was ready to discuss snap elections.
US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, speaking at a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kiev, said the US stood with the Ukrainians dreaming of a European future, as protesters persisted with a blockade of top government buildings and occupation of a central Kiev square.
President Viktor Yanukovych's rejection of a key political and free trade deal with the European Union and a crackdown on the resulting peaceful protests have plunged the ex-Soviet country into its worst political crisis in a decade.
"We stand with the people of Ukraine who see their future in Europe," Nuland said at the opening of the OSCE ministerial meeting.
"We urge the Ukrainian government to listen to the voices of its people who want to live in freedom," she said.
"This is Ukraine's moment. To meet the aspirations of the people or to disappoint them and risk descending into chaos and violence."
US Secretary of State John Kerry was supposed to attend the meeting but he cancelled his visit after the Ukrainian government announced it was halting work on the long-awaited EU deal, which was strongly opposed by Kiev's historic master Moscow.
But several influential foreign ministers, including Carl Bildt of Sweden, Radoslav Sikorski of Poland and Germany's Guido Westerwelle were in attendance on Thursday.
Also present was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, raising the prospect of a possible East-West clash.
Yanukovych -- the focal point of Ukrainians' fury -- is on a three-day visit to China where he hopes to win a new lifeline for the country's ailing economy.
Westerwelle pointedly visited the protests on Independence Square late on Wednesday and told reporters after meeting opposition leaders that the "gates of Europe" were still open for Ukraine.
Addressing the opening of the OSCE meeting, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said the government was "ready for dialogue" with its opponents.
But he lashed out at what he said were "extremist forces" among the protesters and said the way to determine Ukraine's future was through democratic elections.
Instead of attending the talks in Ukraine, Kerry made a brief but highly symbolic visit to neighbouring Moldova, which last month initialled the so-called Association Agreement with Brussels to set the country on the way to EU integration.
In a clear jab at Russia for pressuring Ukraine not to sign the agreement, Kerry said: "To the Ukrainian people, we say the same thing: you too deserve the opportunity to choose your own future."
As well Independence Square, protesters were still occupying Kiev's city hall and holding mass pickets outside the headquarters of the government, the presidential administration and parliament.
The protests, known as the "Euromaidan" after the local name for Independence Square (Maidan), are the biggest demonstrations in Ukraine since the 2004 Orange Revolution. Those demos forced the annulment of fraud-tainted presidential elections initially claimed by Yanukovych and led to a new poll claimed by a pro-Western reformer.
The opposition is calling for the resignation of Azarov and eventually Yanukovych, as well as early presidential elections, and has vowed to keep up the protests round the clock until their demands are met.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Arbuzov, 37, seen as a key member of the so-called "Family" of close allies around Yanukovych, said the government does not rule out discussing snap elections with the opposition.
"We have to hold negotiations," he said on television late Wednesday. "Then, when there are official proposals, (we have to) discuss them."
But many protesters were sceptical. "They are not going to yield power, that's just talk," said Valeriy Vlasenko, standing in the snow on the Maidan.
In a potentially significant move, Ukraine's former presidents Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday united in an unusual call of support for the protesters.
Yushchenko, who was elected as a result of the "Orange" revolt, and Kravchuk have always backed the opposition and are staunch supporters of closer ties with the EU bloc.
But the involvement of Kuchma, president from 1994-2005, may be crucial given his close ties to Ukraine's powerful oligarchs and continued political influence.
"We express solidarity with the peaceful civic actions of hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians," the trio said in a statement.
The demonstrators are led by a sometimes uneasy three-way opposition coalition of nationalist leader Oleg Tyagnybok, politician Arseniy Yatsenyuk and world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko who heads the UDAR (Punch) party.
A violent police crackdown on demonstrators at the weekend left dozens injured including reporters, outraging the West and further galvanising the revolt.
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