The BBC's Steve Rosenberg said priests have been blessing riot police
Ukrainian police have begun dismantling protest camps in front of government buildings in Kiev.
An opposition party said the police had also raided their headquarters.
The protesters had been given until Tuesday to leave. No clashes have been reported.
Opposition leaders urged supporters to defend Independence Square, the main protest site. The stand-off follows weeks of unrest after a U-turn on a free-trade deal with the EU.
The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Kiev says there are far more police in central Kiev than on Sunday, when hundreds of thousands of people came out onto the streets.
Police were dismantling at least two protest sites and forcing protesters out of two streets where, according to the Interior Ministry, they were blocking access to administrative buildings.
However, the ministry said no action was being taken on Independence Square itself.
Talks proposed
Meanwhile spokespeople for the opposition Fatherland Party said police were occupying its headquarters and “breaking down doors”.
However, a police spokeswoman said neither the regular Kiev police nor Berkut riot police had conducted any operations at the address.
The websites for Fatherland and the opposition Freedom Party are currently inaccessible.
Fatherland is the party led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was jailed in 2011 over a controversial gas contract with Russia.
Protesters are demanding her release.
President Viktor Yanukovych has said he will discuss the crisis with three former presidents on Tuesday to try to find a compromise.
The moment anti-government protesters toppled Lenin statue
The protesters have given Mr Yanukovych 48 hours to dismiss the government and are demanding new elections for the presidency and government.
They are blockading government buildings with cars, barricades and tents.
The demonstrators have condemned Mr Yanukovych for refusing to sign an association agreement with the EU last month. He said he shelved it because it would put trade with Russia at risk.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will be in Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday “to support a way out of the political crisis”.
Baroness Ashton will hold talks with government officials, opposition activists and civil society groups.
The Commission says the EU’s offer of an association agreement with Ukraine remains on the table, provided Ukraine meets the conditions – and they cannot be renegotiated.
Sunday’s demonstration was the biggest so far in nearly three weeks, and the biggest in Ukraine since the 2004 Orange Revolution, which swept pro-Western leaders to power.
During the evening, a group of protesters smashed the city’s statue of the Russian revolutionary leader Lenin, and brought its dismembered parts as trophies to Independence Square.
Many of the protesters suspect Russia’s President Vladimir Putin of trying to model a new Russian-led customs union on the Soviet Union. So far only Belarus and Kazakhstan have joined it.
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