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“I am shocked and appalled by the renewed violence and deaths today in Kyiv,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement Wednesday.

“…No act of violence or repression today will go unnoticed by the Government of Canada, and we will work with our allies in the international community to ensure that those responsible will be held to account.”

During the night, the square was encircled by a wall of fire from burning tires. Smoke was still rising from the rose above the centre of the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday afternoon.

Ukraine’s top security agency on Wednesday accused protesters of seizing hundreds of firearms from its offices and announced a nation-wide anti-terrorist operation after 25 people were killed and hundreds injured hundreds in street clashes in the most unrest in the country’s modern history.

The violence Tuesday was the worst in nearly three months of anti-government protests that have paralyzed Ukraine’s capital in a struggle over the identity of a nation divided in loyalties between Russia and the West. It prompted the European Union to threaten sanctions against Ukrainian officials responsible for the violence and triggered angry rebukes from Moscow, which accused the West of triggering the clashes by backing the opposition.

Sanctions would typically include banning leading officials from traveling to the 28-nation bloc and — crucially — freezing their assets there. Travel bans and assets freezes for the powerful oligarchs who back President Viktor Yanukovych could prompt them to pressure him to change course.