Ukraine protest turns violent

KIEV, Ukraine - A protest led by about 300,000 Ukrainians angry over their government's decision to freeze integration with the West turned violent Sunday when a group of demonstrators besieged the president's office and police drove them back with truncheons, tear gas, and flash grenades. Dozens were injured.

The mass rally in central Kiev defied a government ban on protests on Independence Square in the biggest show of anger over President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to sign a political and economic agreement with the European Union.

The protesters also were infuriated by the violent dispersal of a small opposition rally two nights before.

As opposition leaders called for a nationwide strike and prolonged peaceful street protests to demand that the government resign, several thousand people broke away and marched to Yanukovych's nearby office.

A few hundred of them, wearing masks, threw rocks and other objects at police and tried to break through the police lines with a front loader. After several hours of clashes, riot police used force to push them back.

Dozens of people with what appeared to be head injuries were taken away by ambulance. Several journalists, including some beaten by police, were injured.

Opposition leaders denounced the clashes as a provocation aimed at discrediting the peaceful demonstration and alleged that the people who incited the storming of the presidential office were government-hired thugs.

Order appeared to have been restored by Sunday night, with rows of riot police standing guard behind metal fences.

The demonstration was by far the largest since the protests began more than a week ago. The opposition leaders urged Ukrainians from all over the country to join the protests in the capital.

Lawmakers will meet Monday for consultations and planned to hold a parliament session Tuesday.