“Yanukovych is now fighting for his political survival, and time is no longer on his side,” Ash said.
The opposition also was getting some support from Ukraine's main television channels, which are owned by the country's wealthiest businessmen.
Instead of largely toeing the government line, the channels have begun to give a greater platform to the protesters.
This was a sign that the channels' owners were unhappy with the government's refusal to sign the EU deal and pursue better trade ties with Russia instead, said Natalia Ligacheva, head of media watchdog Telekritika.
“They have become more daring and are letting their newsrooms work the way journalists should work,” Ligacheva said.
In Kiev, thousands returned to Independence Square, a protest camp where several hundred people spend the night that has been cordoned off by barricades made of metal bars and wooden planks.
Hundreds of others were holding ground inside Kiev city hall, where some protesters slept on the floor, while others lined up to receive hot tea, sandwiches and other food brought in by Kiev residents.
Other volunteers were sorting through piles of donated warm clothes and medicines.
“You can also fight for freedom and independence by giving out sandwiches,” said Yulia Zhiber, a 21-year-old philology student from Kiev.
Protests have been held daily in Kiev since Yanukovych on Nov. 21 backed away from an agreement that would have established free trade and deepened political cooperation between Ukraine and the EU.
He justified the decision by saying that Ukraine couldn't afford to break trade ties with Russia.
Yanukovych was also reluctant to liberate his top rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose imprisonment the EU called politically revenge and whose freedom it set as a condition for signing the deal.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman reaffirmed the willingness of Berlin and Brussels to sign the association agreement.
“It is very impressive to see how many people in Ukraine are ready to stand up for their conviction, for their dream of a Ukraine that shares Europe's ideas of the rule of law and its values, and seeks closer relations with Europe,” spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
“For the German government, these demonstrations send a very clear message,” he said. “It has to be hoped that ... Yanukovych will hear this message.”
