Ukrainian opposition leaders quickly rejected an offer to meet with the President they say has to step down after favoring ties with Russia over the European Union.  They’re rebuilding protest camps outside government buildings in Kiev after cops tried to dismantle them overnight.

It was the most forceful attempt to clear the streets of anti-government protesters so far.  Cops in riot gear and bulldozers moved in reclaim Independence Square.  There were scuffles and arrests, but police had withdrawn by the mid morning.

Within hours, the US and EU pressured President Viktor Yanukovich to compromise, and he begged the opposition to let him negotiate his way out of the impasse.  They said, “no”.  The US says it is considering all options in dealing with Ukraine’s intransigence, including possible economic sanctions.

The protesters and president are jostling over the future of a country of 46 million people – many people hoping to join the European mainstream, and the president banking on Ukraine’s former Soviet master Russia, which controls the flow of cheap natural gas needed to stave off bankruptcy.