Ukrainian police fired teargas at pro-Europe demonstrators and authorities sought to isolate the jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko on Monday night as she launched a hunger strike over Kiev's rejection of a European trade pact under pressure from Moscow. European Union leaders made unusually strong criticisms of Russia, stressing that the offer to Ukraine remained on the table despite little indication it would sign the pact with the EU at a summit on Friday as originally planned. Police clashed with protesters who gathered for a second day in Kiev and speakers urged people to stay on the streets. President Viktor Yanukovich, acting to defuse pressure from the streets, which denied him the presidency the first time in 2005, said rejecting the pact had been difficult but unavoidable – implying EU rules were too tough on the fragile economy. He pledged to create "a society of European standards". "My policies on this path always have been, and will continue to be, consistent," he said in a television address that did not mention relations with Russia or refer to EU pressure to release Tymoshenko, his fiercest opponent. Within minutes of his address a second round of clashes broke out near Kiev's European Square in which special force units used batons and teargas for several minutes against a small group of protesters away from the main body of the rally. The former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, one of the opposition leaders, denounced Yanukovich's address as an attempt "to justify his absurd policy" and Tymoshenko's lawyer told the crowd she would stop eating to persuade Yanukovich to change his mind. "As a sign of unity with you, I declare an unlimited hunger strike with the demand to Yanukovich to sign the association agreement," the 52-year-old Tymoshenko declared in a message to the protesters read out by her defence lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko. The Ukraine prison service said it was stopping all visits to patients in the hospital in the town of Kharkiv where Tymoshenko is being treated, citing a health risk because of an outbreak of respiratory infection in the town. Public health regulations meant that mass meetings would be suspended too, it said – something that might rule out any protest demonstrations on behalf of Tymoshenko. Yevgenia, Tymoshenko's 32-year-old daughter, said that when she went to visit her mother on Monday she was refused entry. "This is the deliberate, unlawful isolation of my mother," she was quoted by the website of her mother's party as saying. "To take away from a daughter her visit to her mother is humiliating and immoral." The proposed far-reaching trade and political association agreement with Ukraine was the biggest prize in efforts by Brussels to draw states in the former communist east closer to the EU fold.  But Kiev suddenly announced last week it had decided instead to seek closer trade relations with Moscow.  The decision followed months of Russian pressure, including threats to cut off Ukraine's gas supplies and impose trade restrictions. For its part, Moscow has accused the EU of putting Kiev under duress. The EU's two most senior officials – the European council president, Herman Van Rompuy, and the European commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, denounced Russia's actions and said the EU offer remained open. "The European Union will not force Ukraine, or any other partner, to choose between the European Union or any other regional entity," they said in a joint statement.  "We therefore strongly disapprove of the Russian position and actions in this respect."  Russia set up its own customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2010 and wants Ukraine, as well as other former Soviet republics, to join. Ultimately it sees the customs union as an alternative to the 28-member EU.
Teargas fired at pro-EU demonstrators, while authorities seek to isolate jailed opposition leader who has declared hunger strike