By Sam Webb PUBLISHED: 17:29 EST, 8 December 2013 | UPDATED: 10:36 EST, 9 December 2013 Anti-government protesters toppled a statue of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine's capital and attacked it with hammers on Sunday in a symbolic challenge to President Viktor Yanukovich and his plans for closer ties with Russia. The gesture rejecting Moscow's historic influence over Ukraine came after opposition leaders told hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on Kiev's Independence Square to keep up pressure on Yanukovich to sack his government. The protesters are furious that the government decided last month to ditch a landmark pact with the European Union in favour of closer economic cooperation with Moscow, Ukraine's Soviet-era overlord.
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Hundreds of thousands attend rally on Kiev's Independence square
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Opposition fears president may sign trade pact with Russia
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Lenin statue symbolic of Moscow's historic sway in Ukraine
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Protesters erect new barricades in Kievbut opposition calls for peaceful protest
The demonstrators have erected blockades to defend the central @placeholder - now transformed into a tent village, sustained by donations of food and clothing - from any police attempt to retake it