EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton has said that she received a letter from three Ukrainian opposition leaders and reiterated the EU's readiness to assist in the dialogue to find a way of the current crisis.

"Yesterday [on December 17] I received a letter from three opposition leaders setting out their ideas and we've made it clear that either myself or others in the European Union would be more than willing to assist in support of that dialogue if that would be of value," she said in Brussels on Wednesday during an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, where she reported on the results of the last meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.

Ashton again urged the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that citizens continue to have the right of assembly and of expression.

"We need to stop any suggestion of violence, that there has to be an adequate investigation into the violence that has taken place and there has to be the release of the detained demonstrators," she said.