11.04pm GMT

We’re going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the day. Here’s a summary of where things stand:

• Diplomatic efforts continued into the night to resolve a three-day standoff between forces loyal to Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and anti-government protesters, who by day’s end Thursday had strengthened their grip on the key central square, Independence Square, or the Maidan.

• Advances by the protesters came at a terrible price, with anywhere from 39 (the health ministry figure) to more than 70 (a field medic’s figure) dying in violence on Thursday. Guardian reporters saw 21 corpses in the square. Most of the deaths appeared to be from gunfire. Pictures and video emerged of security officers, including snipers, gunning down unarmed protesters.

• Hundreds of protesters have been wounded since fighting broke out Tuesday. At least three security officers died Thursday. Dozens more policemen were captured by protesters and held, apparently unharmed, into the evening. It was the bloodiest day in the history of independent Ukraine.

• A trio of European foreign ministers shuttled on Thursday night between Yanukovych and leaders of the protest. US vice president Joe Biden spoke with Yanukovich on the telephone. Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Yanukovich and with the leaders of Germany and Britain. The Ukrainian military was not taking calls from the US defense department.

• European foreign ministers in Brussels voted unanimously to sanction Ukrainian leaders implicated in the bloodshed, freezing their assets and denying visas. Those measures were likely to take effect within days, although their severity was tied to the course of events on the ground.

• The Ukrainian parliament passed a resolution for security forces to withdraw from the square, but the withdrawal of most members of the ruling Party of Regions left the practical force of the resolution in doubt.

• This latest round of clashes broke out on Tuesday. Protesters first occupied the square in November, in protest of a Yanukovych government decision, under pressure from Moscow, not to pursue an agreement to strengthen ties with the European Union.