KIEV, Nov 26: Ukraine's pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich was unable to enter his offices on Friday as thousands of cheering opposition supporters revved up pressure on the state over a disputed election by blocking key state buildings.
"The prime minister could not get into the government building today, and as a result he could not meet European ambassadors as planned," spokeswoman Anna German said. "This has paralysed the government.
We cannot get into the building," she said. Mr Yanukovich was however able to attend round-table talks later with his opposition rival Viktor Yushchenko and European and Russian mediators.
"Yush-chen-ko! Yush-chen-ko!" chanted the crowd, many clad in the orange colour of the opposition leader as more and more people streamed toward the 10-storey government building in the centre of the capital.
Crowds also blocked off the streets leading to the main and back door entrances to the presidential administration building. The whereabouts of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma were unclear.
The demonstrators formed a barricade around the nearby national parliament building with two minibuses, preventing the lawmakers from getting inside. The opposition asked its supporters to block the entrances on Thursday evening only minutes after Ukraine's supreme court ordered a delay in the publication of official results that handed victory to Mr Yanukovich.
The Ukrainian general prosecutor's office said it had launched seven criminal investigations into the opposition demonstrations for having occupied and blockaded state buildings.
"We are starting to take state power under our control," declared Alexander Zinchenko, who heads a National Salvation Committee that the opposition formed on Thursday night.
Some 150 police cadets in uniform, some wearing orange ribbons, marched in front of the presidency in a faceoff with elite riot officers. They were later shown live on television singing the national anthem in the main Independence Square, where a 100,000-strong opposition crowd was gathered.
"The most important thing is honesty, democracy. We are not indifferent to the fate of our people. Tomorrow our whole police academy will be here," said one of the cadets, 21-year-old Sergei.
A colonel in the special forces guarding the presidency said he would stand firm. "I would rather die than leave this place. Everyone makes their choice, they made theirs and I have made mine," he said.
PM'S SUPPORTERS STREAM INTO KIEV: On the other hand, thousands of supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich flooded into the capital for the first time since the disputed election.
Some 25,000 people carrying blue and white Yanukovich flags gathered in front of the main railway station. Mr Yanukovich fired up his supporters to "do everything so a anti-constitutional coup doesn't take place in Ukraine."
Many in the crowd were from eastern Ukraine, and vented their anger at what they see as Western interference in Ukraine's politics. Much as the contested election has split Ukraine, it has reopened a Cold War rift with the West supporting opposition allegations of vote-rigging while Moscow has stood by Mr Yanukovich.
Vladislav, dressed in threadbare military fatigues and wearing a miner's hat, dismissed opposition supporters as "traitors to the homeland". -AFP
Rivals meet: Ukraine's two rival presidential candidates met on Friday in the presence of President Leonid Kuchma and European and Russian mediators. The meeting came after a flurry of talks that also included European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. -AFP