Truce Collapses in Ukraine, Violence Intensifies
Thursday, 20 Feb 2014 01:44 PM
By Newsmax Wires
Fearing that a call for a truce
was a ruse, protesters tossed firebombs and advanced upon police lines Thursday
in Ukraine's embattled capital.
Government snipers shot back and the almost-medieval melee that ensued left at
least 70 people dead and hundreds injured.
Video footage on Ukrainian
television showed shocking scenes Thursday of protesters being cut down by
gunfire, lying on the pavement as comrades rushed to their aid. Trying to
protect themselves with shields, teams of protesters carried bodies away on
sheets of plastic or on planks of wood.
Meanwhile, in Washington the Obama administration condemned the bloodshed as conservatives in
the House and Senate mocked what they saw as more empty threats from the
president. Many likened it to the "red line" President Obama
threatened Syria
with last year over the use of poison gas, only to retreat after several gas
attacks killed hundreds of people.
Protesters Thursday were also seen
leading policemen with their hands held high around the sprawling protest camp
in central Kiev.
Ukraine's
Interior ministry says 67 police were captured in all. It was not clear how
they were taken. An opposition lawmaker said they were being held in Kiev's occupied city
hall.
President Viktor Yanukovych and
the opposition protesters who demand his resignation are locked in an epic battle
over the identity of Ukraine,
a nation of 46 million that has divided loyalties between Russia and the
West. Parts of the country — mostly in its western cities — are in open revolt
against Yanukovych's central government, while many in eastern Ukraine favor
strong ties with Russia, their former Soviet ruler.
At least 99 people have died this
week in the clashes in Kiev,
a sharp reversal in three months of mostly peaceful protests. Now neither side
appears willing to compromise, with the opposition insisting on Yanukovych's
resignation and an early election and the president apparently prepared to
fight until the end.
Thursday was the deadliest day
yet. An AP cameraman saw snipers shooting at protesters in Kiev
and video footage showed at least one sniper wearing a Ukraine riot
police uniform.
The carnage appears to show that
neither Yanukovych nor the opposition leaders appear to be in control of the
chaos engulfing Ukraine.
Dr. Oleh Musiy, the top medical
coordinator for the protesters told the AP that at least 70 protesters were
killed Thursday and over 500 injured, and the death toll could well rise
further.
There was no way to immediately
verify his statement. Earlier in the day, an Associated Press reporter saw 21
bodies of protesters laid out Thursday on the edge of the capital's sprawling
protest camp.
In addition, one policeman was
killed and 28 suffered gunshot wounds Thursday, Interior Ministry spokesman
Serhiy Burlakov told the AP.
A truce announced late Wednesday
appeared to have little credibility among hardcore protesters at Kiev's Independence Square campsite. One camp
commander, Oleh Mykhnyuk, told the AP even after the truce, protesters still
threw firebombs at riot police on the square. As the sun rose, police pulled
back, the protesters followed them and police then began shooting at them, he
said.
The Interior Ministry warned Kiev residents to stay
indoors Thursday because of the "armed and aggressive mood of the
people."
Yanukovych claimed Thursday that
police were not armed and "all measures to stop bloodshed and
confrontation are being taken." But the Interior Ministry later
contradicted that, saying law enforcers would get weapons as part of an
"anti-terrorist" operation.
Some signs emerged that Yanukovych
is losing loyalists. The chief of Kiev's
city administration, Volodymyr Makeyenko, announced Thursday he was leaving
Yanukovych's Party of Regions.
"We must be guided only by
the interests of the people, this is our only chance to save people's
lives," he said, adding he would continue to fulfill his duties as long as
he had the people's trust.
Another influential member of the
ruling party, Serhiy Tyhipko, said both Yanukovych and opposition leaders had
"completely lost control of the situation."
"Their inaction is leading to
the strengthening of opposition and human victims," the Interfax news
agency reported.
The parliament building was
evacuated Thursday because of fears that protesters would storm it, and the
government office and the Foreign Ministry buildings in Kiev were also evacuated. But a parliament
session convened in the afternoon, with some pro-government lawmakers heeding
the opposition's call to work out a solution to the crisis.
As the violence exploded and heavy
smoke from burning barricades at the encampment belched into the sky, the
foreign ministers of three European countries — France,
Germany and Poland — met
with Yanukovych for five hours after speaking with the opposition leaders. The
EU ministers then returned to speak again with opposition leaders.
The 28-nation European Union began
an emergency meeting on Ukraine
in Brussels to
consider sanctions against those behind the violence.
The latest bout of street violence
began Tuesday when protesters attacked police lines and set fires outside
parliament, accusing Yanukovych of ignoring their demands to enact
constitutional reforms that would once again limit the president's power.
Prior to the deaths Thursday, the
Ukrainian Health Ministry said 28 people have died and 287 have been
hospitalized this week. Protesters who have set up a medical facility in a
downtown cathedral so that wounded colleagues would not be snatched away by
police say the number of injured are significantly higher — possibly double or
triple that.
The Caritas Ukraine aid group praised
the protest medics but said many of the wounded will need long-term care,
including prosthetics.
The clashes this week have been
the most deadly since protests kicked off in November after Yanukovych shelved
an association agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia. Russia then announced a $15 billion bailout for Ukraine, whose
economy is in tatters.
The political jockeying for
influence in Ukraine
has continued. In Moscow, the Kremlin said
President Vladimir Putin was sending former ombudsman Vladimir Lukin to Ukraine as a
mediator.
President Obama stepped in to
condemn the violence, warning Wednesday "there will be consequences"
for Ukraine
if it keeps up. The U.S. has
raised the prospect of joining with the EU to impose sanctions against Ukraine.
But those remarks generated scorn
from conservatives who pointed to the administration earlier unfulfilled
warnings to the Syrian regime.
The president made the remarks on
the sidelines of a daylong summit with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Stars and Stripes reported.
Obama said: "I want to be
very clear as we work through these next several days in Ukraine that
we're going to be watching closely, and we expect the Ukrainian government to
show restraint, to not resort to violence in dealing with peaceful protesters.
We've also said we expect peaceful protesters to remain peaceful, and we'll be
monitoring very closely the situation, recognizing that with our European
partners and the international community there will be consequences if people
step over the line."
Deputy National Security Adviser
Ben Rhodes raised the possibility of sanctions against those responsible for
the violence that has claimed 26 lives.
The president referenced Syria in
response to a reporter's question.
"I do think it is worth
noting that you have in this situation in one country that has been a client
state of Russia, and another
whose government is currently being supported by Russia, whose people obviously have
a very different view and vision for their country. And we have now seen a
great deal of turmoil there that arose organically from within those
countries," NBC reported.
Conservative Washington Post
columnist George Will picked up on the parallel between Ukraine and Syria during an appearance on
Wednesday's "Special Report" on Fox News, Breitbart reported.
"Well, announcing
expectations is all very well," Will said. "But I'm not sure who is
impressed by it. What we are seeing in the Ukraine,
what we've seen in Syria,
and what we will see again in Iran
is a complete failure of what I think was the centerpiece of the president's
foreign policy, and that is the reset of the relations with Russia."
Peter Wehner asked in Commentary:
"Have more empty words ever been uttered by an American president?"
Wehner, who served as deputy
assistant to president George W. Bush wrote, "In the aftermath of Mr.
Obama telling the Syrian regime that using chemical weapons would cross a 'red
line,' and then doing nothing serious in response to it, the president's latest
threat is probably evoking belly laughs in Kiev."
Also Wednesday, on Fox News'
"Hannity" program, Oliver North described Obama as behaving like
"Jimmy Carter on steroids."
North said he was not advocating
sending American soldiers to quell civil wars abroad. "But it would have
been nice to have had the credibility of being at least respected by
adversaries or admired by our allies. And we have neither as a consequence of
his total failure of leadership."
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev said Russia will
"try to do our best" to fulfill its financial obligations to Ukraine, but indicated Moscow would hold back on further
installments of its bailout money until the crisis is resolved.
"We need partners that are in
good shape and a Ukrainian government that is legitimate and effective,"
he said.
At the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Ukrainian alpine skier Bogdana Matsotska, 24, said
she will not take part in Friday's women's slalom due to the developments in Kiev.
"As a protest against lawless
actions made toward protesters, the lack of responsibility from the side of the
president and his lackey government, we refuse further performance at the 2014
Sochi Olympic Games," her father and coach, Oleg Matsotskyy, wrote in a
Facebook post.
Ukraine
Viktor F.
Yanukovich is the president of the Ukraine, and a Davis Manafort’s client.
Note: Richard H. Davis
is a managing director at Davis Manafort, and a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Donna
S. Morea was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.
CGI Group Inc.
was the Obamacare contractor that
developed Healthcare.gov web site.
Obamacare
is Barack Obama’s signature policy
initiative.
Barbara G. Fast
was a VP for the CGI Group Inc, and a
VP at the Boeing Company.
Kenneth M. Duberstein
was a VP for the Committee for Economic
Development, is a director at the Boeing
Company, and a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
W. James
McNerney Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and the chairman & president & CEO for the Boeing Company.
William
M. Daley is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, was a director at the Boeing
Company, and the chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Boeing Company.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior
counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s
great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think
tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Valerie B. Jarrett
is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior
adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago,
Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Edward
M. Liddy is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a director
at the Boeing Company.
James
A. Bell is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and was the EVP & CFO for the Boeing Company.
Kenneth M. Duberstein
is a director at the Boeing Company,
a trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and was a VP for the Committee
for Economic Development.
Richard H. Davis
is a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, and a managing director at Davis Manafort.
Viktor F.
Yanukovich is a Davis Manafort’s client, and the president
of the Ukraine.
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