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Several hundred thousand people gathered in the Ukrainian capital Sunday for one of the largest protest rallies in the former Soviet nation’s history, throwing down the gauntlet to a government that has resisted calls for negotiation with the opposition, RIA Novosti reported. 

In an incident that may spark criminal investigations and cast a shadow over the generally pacific events, however, a group of nationalists ripped down a statue of Soviet revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.

The mass assembly in Kiev was the biggest to date since the government last month pulled out of preparations to sign landmark political and trade deals with the EU, sparking widespread indignation across Ukraine.

In an indication that the standoff has provoked international concern, the European Commission announced Sunday that EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton will travel to Kiev next week to assist in seeking a way out of the political impasse.

Authorities have so far displayed little desire to compromise with the opposition, and have instead limited themselves to issuing ominous warnings that demonstrations could tip over into unrest.

Despite that, Sunday’s events had passed largely without incident until the late afternoon, as darkness began to descend.

While nationwide discontent was initially focused on the reversal of course over the EU– a move authorities justified by stating it was preferable to boost economic ties with neighboring Russia – it has with time taken on a more generalized anti-government flavor.

Ukraine’s weak economy, much of which is reliant on outdated heavy industry, has struggled to recover from the devastating impact of the recent global financial crisis. Rampant unemployment has driven large numbers of Ukrainians abroad for work and many bristle at perceived high-level corruption.

Shortly after light broke Sunday, Ukrainian Orthodox Church priests led open-air prayers from the stage as hundreds of those camped in overnight began awaking and collecting rations of tea and breakfast.

Toward mid-morning, the crowd on Independence Square had already swelled to a few thousand people, many of them waving an array of flags, from those of Ukraine to the standards of leading opposition parties and the European Union.

As the assigned time for the midday start to the assembly approached, a crowd of all ages grew fast and filled the square and streets leading off it. Groups affiliated with political parties marched in file to and from the square, reciting political chants and singing patriotic songs on the way.

Kiev police estimated the turnout at 100,000, but bird’s eye video footage of Independence Square and the sheer number of people filling side streets suggested a vastly superior figure.

In another part of the city, a group of masked youths apparently belonging to the Svoboda nationalist party used a steel cable to rip down a Lenin statue. The head and arms of the monument broke away as it hit the ground, after which people in the crowd took turns at smashing off fragments with a sledgehammer.

The Lenin statue had been the target of a similar toppling attempt on December 1, but that effort was thwarted by security forces.