Urgent evacuation announced at Verkhovna Rada building - MP Lytvyn
An announcement has been made calling on all people to immediately leave the Ukrainian Parliament building.
"An urgent evacuation has been announced," MP Volodymyr Lytvyn told reporters, declining to give any reason for the measure.
No groups of people can be seen around the Verkhovna Rada building at the moment. However, several hundred supporters of the authorities are present at Mariyinsky Park and on Constitution Square, an Interfax correspondent has said.
Riot police and groups of young people wearing helmets and protective gear and carrying sticks and baseball bats can be seen heading toward the city's Parkova Alley. They claim that they are "ready to defend the constitution".
The part of Parkova Alley near Paton Bridge has been closed to traffic.
Riot police units are moving in the direction of Kriposny Lane.
The Verkhovna Rada building is practically not being guarded at the moment.
Parliamentarians and other people are leaving the parliament building in a hurry. Some of them are running. They are heading along Hrushevskoho Street toward the Arsenalna subway station.
There was only a small number of MPs in the Verkhovna Rada when the evacuation was announced, Lytvyn said.
The building's entrance doors were closed at around 0930.
Several police cars, ambulances, a fire truck and an armored personnel carrier recently rushed along Hrushevskoho Street in the direction of the Arsenalna metro station.
Gunshots can be heard in the street.