Protesters near Kiev have formed a human chain to stop buses carrying government troops getting to the capital to deal with the ongoing pro-European street demonstrations.
Activists late Wednesday blocked the entrance of a military facility in Vasilkov, a town 25 kilometers south of Kiev, preventing the departure of 33 buses, the EvroMaidan Facebook group said.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have taken to the streets since Nov. 21, when President Viktor Yanukovych suspended plans to sign a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia. About 20 tents have been pitched on Kiev's Independence Square around the clock for days.
Major General Arkady Vashutyn, chief of the military unit, promised not to use force against the protesters in Vasilkov and to "protect them" from provocateurs, an unidentified participant in the blockade wrote on Facebook.
The same protester-blogger called for his fellow Ukrainians to join the blockade, saying they "must not allow more bloodshed on Maidan," in a reference to a rally in Kiev on Sunday that was crushed by the police.
It is unclear whether the blockade was still in place by Thursday morning.
In a separate incident, motorists briefly blocked off a riot police base in Kiev late Wednesday, Ukrainian blogger Anna Soroka wrote on her Facebook page.
A posted by Soroka shows about a dozen cars parked in front of the base on Krasnozvyozdny Prospekt, beeping their horns and preventing at least one police car, which had its flashing lights on, from driving out.
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