Kiev is choking on smoke and tear gas as cops and protesters battle for control of the Ukrainian capital.  As many as five opposition demonstrators are dead in clashes, and opposition leaders are warning things might get more intense.

The fighting went late into yet another night.  Demonstrators gathered bricks and broke them up for hurling at authorities.  They lit bonfires, and tore down corrugated steel to use for defense.  When the mainstream demonstrators go home at night, the streets are handed to a hodge-podge of Ukrainian nationalists and ignorant fascists, although the red and black banners and “circled A” signs of left-wing Anarcho-Communists are never far away.

Earlier, opposition leader and former heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko said told his approving crowd that he would lead his pro-EU protesters “on the attack” if the government refused to call snap elections. Another opposition leader said the government had 24 hours to respond to the demands, which also include the lifting of the new anti-protest laws.

“If this does not happen, we will march forward together. If it's a bullet to the head, then it's a bullet to the head,” declared Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of jailed former president Yulia Tymoshenko’s center-right “Fatherland” party.