Protesters roam in body armour and clutching baseball bats. Black smoke from burning tyres rises into the sky. Walking alone at night is not advised -- Kiev's protest-hit centre has become a surreal battleground.
In mid-November, the Ukrainian capital Kiev was still a relatively normal European city, its busy shopping streets and leafy boulevards disturbed by only occasional protests.
Today the city centre is transformed, blocked by metres high barricades made out of sandbags topped by barbed wire.
The writ of the Ukrainian authorities led by President Viktor Yanukovych has no value whatsoever in this zone, controlled by protesters now for almost two months.
The frontline of the clashes between protesters and security forces on the once-picturesque cobbled Grushevsky Street recalls images of World War I as protesters stare through smoke across their barricades at the opposing line of special police forces.
The statue of the legendary Soviet and Ukrainian football manager Valeriy Lobanovskiy outside the adjacent Dynamo Kiev football stadium resembles a grotesque gargoyle in a post-apocalyptic scene, covered in a mixture of icicles and ash.
The special forces stand immobile, their helmets glinting in the winter sun and behind a protecting line of shields.
The street is scattered with the black ash of tyres burned by protesters on their front line. The businesses on the street -- including an Italian designer clothes store and sushi restaurant have long since shuttered down.
Radical protesters, expecting another bloody standoff with the security forces, protect themselves with any random body armour they can find.
Many wear ski helmets and goggles, others climbing helmets and gas masks with strips of camping mats taped around their shins to protect their legs.
Local residents have to deal with horrific traffic jams caused by the closure of much of the city centre but remain tolerant of the disruption caused by the protests.
"The lines of security forces are a hassle for drivers since cars are not being let through onto some central streets," said Svyatoslav Mokrienko, a 29-year-old government employee.
Even the cobblestones dug out by protesters to throw at police "can be replaced", he said.
'Closed for technical reasons'
Almost the entire length of Kiev's main Khreshchatyk Avenue is now covered with tents pitched by protesters, the air filled with the stench of the smoke from the wood burned to heat and cook food.
Many, though not all, of its shops and restaurants have shut indefinitely.
"Closed for technical reasons," the signs say in a classic euphemism familiar throughout the ex-Soviet Union.
The protest hub of Independence Square still has the wreckage of the Christmas tree the Kiev municipality had unsuccessfully tried to put up at the start of the protests.
Its fir-less metal shell is adorned with anti-Yanukovych slogans behind which stares a now ghostly and faded image of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
"Bandu het!" ("Out with the gang!") and "Hanba!" (Shame!) chant the tens of thousands crammed into the square every night, impatiently heckling opposition leaders for negotiating with Yanukovych.
Turning against Yanukovych who was notoriously jailed twice in the Soviet Union for petty crime, they yell another favourite protest slogan "Zeka het!" ("Out with the convict!).
Watch out for Titushkos
It is hard to believe that this is the same city that in summer 2012 hosted the final of the Euro football championships, impressing those who visited as an undiscovered jewel of Europe with its hills, churches and fin-de-siecle architecture.
Walking through the city away from the protest at night is a troubling experience, with just groups of masked protesters keeping an eye on the deserted streets.
Warnings abound of the risk of attacks by so-called "Titushkos", pro-regime goons said to be paid to stir up trouble named after a certain Vadym Titushko who notoriously beat up a group of Ukrainian journalists in May.
Parts of the city are still relatively untouched by the strife.
Life continues as normal in the historic Podil district by the Dnipro river.
But walking towards the centre pedestrians quickly come across a first barricade monitored by masked activists.
The first mass protest in Kiev took place on November 24, shortly after the government ditched plans for an integration deal with the EU.
Whole families turned out, waving EU flags and chanting "Ukraine is Europe". Then they drifted peacefully home.
Following repeated police violence and official intransigence, the protest movement and the city are now transformed.
Protesters roam in body armour and clutching baseball bats. Black smoke from burning tyres rises into the sky. Walking alone at night is not advised — Kiev’s protest-hit centre has become a surreal battleground.
In mid-November, the Ukrainian capital Kiev was still a relatively normal European city, its busy shopping streets and leafy boulevards disturbed by only occasional protests.
Today the city centre is transformed, blocked by metres high barricades made out of sandbags topped by barbed wire.
The writ of the Ukrainian authorities led by President Viktor Yanukovych has no value whatsoever in this zone, controlled by protesters now for almost two months.
The frontline of the clashes between protesters and security forces on the once-picturesque cobbled Grushevsky Street recalls images of World War I as protesters stare through smoke across their barricades at the opposing line of special police forces.
The statue of the legendary Soviet and Ukrainian football manager Valeriy Lobanovskiy outside the adjacent Dynamo Kiev football stadium resembles a grotesque gargoyle in a post-apocalyptic scene, covered in a mixture of icicles and ash.
The special forces stand immobile, their helmets glinting in the winter sun and behind a protecting line of shields.
The street is scattered with the black ash of tyres burned by protesters on their front line. The businesses on the street — including an Italian designer clothes store and sushi restaurant have long since shuttered down.
Radical protesters, expecting another bloody standoff with the security forces, protect themselves with any random body armour they can find.
Many wear ski helmets and goggles, others climbing helmets and gas masks with strips of camping mats taped around their shins to protect their legs.
Local residents have to deal with horrific traffic jams caused by the closure of much of the city centre but remain tolerant of the disruption caused by the protests.
“The lines of security forces are a hassle for drivers since cars are not being let through onto some central streets,” said Svyatoslav Mokrienko, a 29-year-old government employee.
Even the cobblestones dug out by protesters to throw at police “can be replaced”, he said.
‘Closed for technical reasons’
Almost the entire length of Kiev’s main Khreshchatyk Avenue is now covered with tents pitched by protesters, the air filled with the stench of the smoke from the wood burned to heat and cook food.
Many, though not all, of its shops and restaurants have shut indefinitely.
“Closed for technical reasons,” the signs say in a classic euphemism familiar throughout the ex-Soviet Union.
The protest hub of Independence Square still has the wreckage of the Christmas tree the Kiev municipality had unsuccessfully tried to put up at the start of the protests.
Its fir-less metal shell is adorned with anti-Yanukovych slogans behind which stares a now ghostly and faded image of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
“Bandu het!” (“Out with the gang!”) and “Hanba!” (Shame!) chant the tens of thousands crammed into the square every night, impatiently heckling opposition leaders for negotiating with Yanukovych.
Turning against Yanukovych who was notoriously jailed twice in the Soviet Union for petty crime, they yell another favourite protest slogan “Zeka het!” (“Out with the convict!).
Watch out for Titushkos
It is hard to believe that this is the same city that in summer 2012 hosted the final of the Euro football championships, impressing those who visited as an undiscovered jewel of Europe with its hills, churches and fin-de-siecle architecture.
Walking through the city away from the protest at night is a troubling experience, with just groups of masked protesters keeping an eye on the deserted streets.
Warnings abound of the risk of attacks by so-called “Titushkos”, pro-regime goons said to be paid to stir up trouble named after a certain Vadym Titushko who notoriously beat up a group of Ukrainian journalists in May.
Parts of the city are still relatively untouched by the strife.
Life continues as normal in the historic Podil district by the Dnipro river.
But walking towards the centre pedestrians quickly come across a first barricade monitored by masked activists.
The first mass protest in Kiev took place on November 24, shortly after the government ditched plans for an integration deal with the EU.
Whole families turned out, waving EU flags and chanting “Ukraine is Europe”. Then they drifted peacefully home.
Following repeated police violence and official intransigence, the protest movement and the city are now transformed.
