Ukraine PM calls for end to tension, but police brace for action

By Richard Balmforth and Thomas Grove KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's embattled prime minister Mykola Azarov warned protesters on Wednesday they would be punished if they broke the law after he marshalled his ministers for a cabinet meeting despite an attempted blockade by demonstrators. With a crisis over the government's rejection of closer ties with the European Union piling pressure on the creaking economy, one of Azarov's deputies departed for Moscow for talks including on Russian natural gas, for which Kiev is urgently seeking lower prices. Tension stayed high in Kiev as black-helmeted riot police sealed off the approach road to the main offices of President Viktor Yanukovich, confronting several hundred protesters from behind steel barriers.