Ukraine’s opposition hoped Sunday to muster a million-strong rally in a new push to wring concessions from President Viktor Yanukovych in a bitter confrontation over a rejected EU pact.

Ukraine's opposition hoped Sunday to muster a million-strong rally in a new push to wring concessions from President Viktor Yanukovych in a bitter confrontation over a rejected EU pact.

Yanukovych's decision to drop political and free trade agreements with the EU in favor of tighter Russian ties and a crackdown on an opposition rally plunged the ex-Soviet nation into a political crisis.

The president incensed the opposition and its supporters further by discussing the signing of a strategic partnership treaty with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday.

Opposition leaders said Saturday that they would not sit down for talks with Yanukovych unless he dismissed the government, released arrested protesters and punished riot police officers for crushing an opposition rally last week.

The protests in Ukraine have raged for over two weeks after the government abruptly announced it was halting the work on the agreements with the European Union.

Boxing champion turned opposition leader Vitali Klitschko said a million should take to the streets of Kiev on Sunday.

"Our future depends on you," he said.

Putin has slammed the protests, saying they looked more "like a pogrom than a revolution."

In contrast, the West has urged the Ukrainian authorities to heed the demands of the protest movement.

Protesters have seized control of Kiev's iconic Independence Square, setting up a tent city amid barricades and blockading several public buildings.

In a sign of further tensions, the authorities said Saturday they had deployed riot police outside the offices of the public broadcaster.

Interior Minister Vitali Zakharchenko, in a statement early Sunday, called on protesters to respect the law and said police were ready to cooperate.