Ukraine continues to grow more
unstable. Violence resumed less than a day after an attempted truce
between President Viktor Yanukovych and the representatives of the
pro-western Euromaidan opposition was declared, and a growing
number of government officials are rejecting the president’s
authority. Intermittent fighting since Tuesday morning has
marked the deadliest stretch in the nation’s revolution, which
began in November.
Twenty-six people were reported dead and 1,000 injured after
Tuesday’s battles began between civilians and the federal
government’s riot police and internal troops. The
body count has since climbed to over 50. One medic
claims that the number is closer to 70.
Yanukovych
charges that blame rests solely on the protesters, who are
“using firearms, including sniper rifles. They are shooting to
kill.” The Interior Ministry states that the
opposition has captured 67 riot police.
At the same time, Acting Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko
openly acknowledges
that “law enforcement officials have been provided with combat
weapons,” only a day after the ministry denied
using firearms.
A Belarusian news channel
aired footage of government snipers shooting at opposition
forces even as they tended to injured individuals.
International Business Times
describes the event as a “massacre” and reports that the attack
took place only hours after the president promised the truce.
Ukrainian newspaper
Ukrainska Pravda writes that
in another case, “peaceful people” standing in the street taking a
photograph were hit with sniper fire, and one man died after taking
a bullet to the throat.
Russian news site Slon.ru
reports on a similar situation in which a nurse was hit in the
neck, but survived.
Government officials and even some law enforcement are becoming
openly
opposed to Yanukovych’s course of action.
In the western province of Lviv, the regional government
declared
that because “the [Yanukovych] regime has begun active military
action against people,” it no longer has authority. Instead, “the
lawfully elected local councils and the executive committees
created by them remain the legitimate authorities,” and that “the
majority of the district police departments have already announced
their decision to take the side of the people of Ukraine and report
to the executive committee of the Lviv region’s council.”
Even the Kiev City Administrator, Volodymyr Makeyenko,
announced his “decision to quit the ranks of the [Yanukovych’s]
Party of Regions, and take personal responsibility for the vital
activity of Kiev.”
A State Department official
told Radio Free Europe that it had placed sanctions on 20
unnamed Ukrainians, barring them from entering the U.S. The
European Union also introduced sanctions, both travel-related and
economic. The latter “will affect those businesses who still
support the regime that violates human rights,” according
to Ukrainska Pravda. Some members of the president’s
administration and party, including the prime minister,
have already fled the country.
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