Ukraine: revolutionaries take the place of police on Kiev's streets

Andreiy and his comrades keep watch for buses packed with "tituskhi" - the young criminals hired by the old regime to harass protesters. "If we see a suspicious vehicle, we take the registration number and contact the revolutionaries in the centre of Kiev and ask them to stop it. If they call us and tell us to stop a car, then we do," he said.

Andreiy also enforces good behaviour at a nearby junction, although elsewhere in Kiev a few traffic police have reappeared. "If somebody crosses a red light, we say 'please don't do that'. We can't make them pay anything, but we just warn them," he said.

Whether all the revolutionaries are so restrained is open to question. But Ukraine's police were so notorious for taking bribes that few miss their absence.

The revolutionaries, meanwhile, have shown their ability to enforce order.

The area of central Kiev which they have controlled for months is packed with expensive shops, including branches of Gucci and Louis Vuitton. These businesses have closed their doors, but their windows are unbroken and there is no visible sign of looting.

Anna Grygorenko, who serves at a jewellery counter in Komod shopping centre, had no qualms about placing a glittering array of earrings and necklaces on display. "We had the revolution because there was no law and people wanted to control the police. There was no trust in the police - people were afraid of them," she said.

"So it's the opposite: if we don't have police and people try to control things themselves, it makes me feel safer."

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Ukraine: revolutionaries take the place of police on Kiev's streets