KIEV, Ukraine — A new round of violence broke out in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Tuesday as protesters and police clashed in the government quarter of the city, one block away from the Verkhovna Rada, the country’s parliament.

A session was set to take place there this morning in which opposition lawmakers hoped to pass amendments to the constitution that would curb the powers of the president. However, it was cancelled due to the violence outside.
See also: 20 Incredible Images of Massive Protests in Ukraine

The struggle began after dozens of protesters managed to break through a police cordon comprised of four large military trucks. They managed to release the emergency brake of one of the trucks and push it aside.

Protesters hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at police, who in turn heaved tear gas and noise grenades at the group. At least five police, including two snipers, were seen atop a nearby building, throwing down tear gas at protesters, firing metal pellets and using the high vantage point to single out the most radical of participants.

Several protesters received injuries as a result of hand-to-hand combat and sniper fire. One young man was shot in the eye. Bleeding profusely, he was taken to an ambulance by medical personnel. At least two police officers were severely beaten by protesters wielding metal pipes and baseball bats when they were separated from their group. One lost consciousness briefly before being attended to by medics.
This protester was just shot in the head with rubber bullet, presumably fired by police sniper. #kyiv #ukraine pic.twitter.com/LixNexK7Kj
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 18, 2014
Protesters shattered the windows of the police trucks before dousing them in gasoline and setting them ablaze. Flames several feet high raged for more than an hour and thick, black smoke billowed into the sky.
Renewed violence in #Ukraine. Police use tear gas, flash grenades & live ammunition. http://t.co/jpPLBNUmIq pic.twitter.com/g4pwDqlKab
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) February 18, 2014

Thousands of demonstrators looked on, chanting “out with the gang” and “convicts out,” referring to pro-government lawmakers from the Party of Regions and the president, who was twice convicted of assault crimes in his youth.

Some protesters dug up paving stones from sidewalks and passed them to a human chain that sent them to protesters fighting with police on the front lines.

One block away, another group of protesters, led by activist Tetyana Chornovol, who was badly beaten in an attack in December, broke the windows and doors of the ruling Party of Regions Kiev headquarters in an attempt to storm the building. Those inside countered by showering protesters with water from a firehouse out the second-floor window.

Protesters inside two of the windows heaved Molotov cocktails, igniting small fires that were quickly put out. One person inside the building tossed glass bottles at the mob outside.

Within 30 minutes, police arrived on the scene, beating back the crowd with tear gas and blunt force. They eventually managed to cordon off the building and repel protesters from the street. The protesters set up their own cordon about 160 feet away, in case police should try to attack protesters near the parliament from behind.

Eventually, a group of police did attack from behind, storming out of a building half a block from the site of the first clashes near parliament.

The violence continued into the afternoon, as the number of protesters and police on the streets increased.

The clashes come almost one month to the day of a battle between police and protesters on another central street, Hrushevskoho. From Jan. 19 to Jan. 23, the two groups fought around the clock. At least five protesters were killed as a result, and several hundred on both sides were badly hurt.
On Tuesday, more than 1,000 protesters went back to the street and reinforced barricades erected in January. There, they burned tires to create a smokescreen and keep police from advancing.

The public unrest in Ukraine began last November, when President Viktor Yanukovych spurned a long-anticipated deal with the European Union, and instead turned to Russia for a $15 billion bailout. Russia seeks to pull Ukraine into its political orbit, while the EU would like to see the former Soviet country move westward.
Christopher J. Miller is an editor at English-language newspaper the Kyiv Post in Ukraine.