Pro-EU Ukrainian demonstrators on Monday kept up their protest against President Viktor Yanukovich as the authorities sent internal troops and riot police into central Kiev in an increasingly tense showdown.

A group of anti-government protesters on Sunday toppled the statue of Vladimir Lenin in Kiev, the national capital, to vent their anger toward their government’s decision to seek closer economic ties with Russia instead of with the European Union (EU).

French President Francois Hollande on Saturday called for swift election in Central African Republic after Paris launched a military offensive to restore order in the African country.