KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Police in Ukraine used tear gas on demonstrators gathered near the Cabinet of Ministers Monday protesting the end of European Union trade talks, the BBC said.
Authorities blocked traffic along Hrushevsky Street near the government building as several hundred protesters clashed with police, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
Protesters hurled items at police and sprayed an unidentified gas as they called for the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azara's government.
The rallies began Friday in Kiev after the Ukrainian government backed down from the culmination of four years of free trade negotiations with the European Union.
They continued Sunday, when opposition leaders estimated some 100,000 people gathered in European Square in what was likely the largest public demonstration in Ukraine since the 2004 Orange Revolution.
Azarov said the cause of the abandoned EU agreements was the harsh terms set by the International Monetary Fund, but critics said the real reason was because Russia threatened to cut off gas supplies to the indebted country.
