Ukraine protesters enlarge territory, strike at other cities

Orthodox priests pray as they stand between protesters and the police in Kiev early Friday.

Fresh clashes as hundreds of protesters fortified new barricades in the centre of the capital -at least three protesters killed during unrest

Antigovernment protesters near a soccer stadium in Kiev on Friday

KIEV, Ukraine — With President Viktor F. Yanukovych and antigovernment demonstrators at an impasse here, a cease-fire disintegrated on Friday night as the Ukrainian capital convulsed in renewed violence and fire bombs lit up the night sky.

Civil unrest spread across the country earlier on Friday as protesters laid siege to government buildings in at least nine other cities — occupying some and thronging outside others.

The widening turmoil, in the central Ukrainian cities of Khmelnitsky, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy, as well as in the western strongholds of Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lutsk, Rivne and Chernivtsi, showed that the authorities, including the elite Berkut riot police and Interior Ministry troops, were outnumbered and at risk of being spread too thin.

Protesters use a large slingshot to hurl a Molotov cocktail at police in Kiev.

A woman hits a riot police officer with a cross as he attempts to drag a protester on Wednesday. 

Protester Mikhail Zhiznevsky, 25, was one of three who died in clashes with police on Wednesday

A woman weeps as a casket passes. The government deny the protester was killed by police, and instead say he was shot with hunting rifles

A group of people carry a banner that reads: 'Yanukovich-Killer', at the memorial service

Elsewhere, action continues in Kiev and across the country. Pictured are demonstrators at a road block in the capital today

Protesters attack a government building in the early hours of this morning following news of the president's offer

A woman listens to speeches during an anti-government rally in Independence Square