BREAKING: Live Video of Flames Engulfing Kiev's Independence Square as Protesters Clash With Police

[ashling]

Source: NBC

Thousands of police armed with stun grenades and water cannons charged into the large opposition camp in Ukraine's capital of Kiev that has been the epicenter of nearly three months of anti-government protests after at least nine people were killed in street clashes Tuesday.

Riot police advanced toward protesters late Tuesday after shutting down nearby subway stations, The Associated Press reported.

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A police spokeswoman said nine people, including two police officers, were confirmed dead in the clashes.

Demonstrators torched vehicles and threw stones with authorities responding with rubber bullets and smoke grenades, Reuters reported.
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Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/deadly-clashes-reignite-near-ukraines-parliament-n32756

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streaming video available in video and multimedia



Live feed from Ukraine


#t=1359687


My daughter Lori is in Evpatoria, Krimea. She is trying to get a non-immigrant visa for Maks, her Ukrainian husband, to come here.

she posted this on FB today:

Lori Pickett shared Euromaidan in English's status update.

Euromaidan in English
Poland is accepting wounded from Ukraine, visa issues are sorted out on site via Lviv consul Mr. Drozd, informs http://vk.com/revolution_ukrainian

Update:
The State Department on Tuesday issued an emergency message to all American citizens in Ukraine, warning them that the situation is “unpredictable and can change quickly.” All citizens, the message reads, are advised to maintain a low profile and remain indoors. “U.S. citizens are advised to avoid all protests, demonstrations, and large gatherings and to remain inside in the evening,” it says. “U.S. citizens whose residences or hotels are located in the vicinity of the protests are cautioned to leave those areas or prepare to remain indoors, possibly for several days, should clashes occur.”

[dipsydoodle]

1. Uptodate casualties

are 8 protesters dead and 6 police.

[OKNancy]

5. got this from twitter just now

Jack Quann ‏@jqbilbao 1m
Reports say the death toll in #Kiev rises to 18 - 11 protesters & 7 police #Ukraine (via @RT_com)

[dipsydoodle]

11. The nights not over yet

its only 12.45 am there at present.

I'm not sure what's occurring but I do know that any tweets will be from the opposition only - there's about 25,000 of them and I don't know how representative they are of the population.

[Daemonaquila]

15. It's a mixed bag.

There's a lot of similarity to the Occupy movement, with the main thrust being an end to corruption, Yanukovich's rule, and pro-Russia (and anti-EU) policy. The protestors are of all political bents, with the most violent factions being allegedly right-wing. A lot of their positions aren't crazy bad (you may want to look up the Svoboda party's website) except that they're extremely anti-atheist and anti-anyone who has ever been a communist.

As for how representative they are of the population, it's literally an east/west thing. The protestors come from every age, class, and vocation. However, they are more from the west, which has always maintained a more Ukrainian population vs. the east, which has been heavily populated by Russians as well as Russian industry. It's a lot like the Irish struggles, when you come down to it.

[dipsydoodle]

16. You said

"However, they are more from the east, which has always maintained a more Ukrainian population vs. the west, which has been heavily populated by Russians as well as Russian industry"

I think you might have that back to front.

[Daemonaquila]

19. Yup, slip of the fingers - whoopsie!

I can't believe I did that. Going back to edit. That's what I get for trying to type and listen to the live feed at the same time.

[dipsydoodle]

27. In all honesty

the reason I noticed is that I made the same slip last week.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

29. I see virtually no similarity to the Occupy movement.

This is nationalistic and political struggle, and likely proxy war between western interests and Russian interests. There is also next to nil similarities in tactics, other than pitching some tents.

[levp]

35. Everything is political.

Class conflict is very political.
Also, there was a big anarchist element in the OWS. So, should all of them be condemned as agents of RT TV (or Castro's, or Chavez's - at the time)?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

41. OWS was deliberately non-political,

acknowledging that the political class here on both sides of the isle are corrupted by the 1%, who are responsible for expanding income inequality. OWS certainly did have a large Anarchist element that initiated the non political affiliation, inclusive non hierarchical representation demonstrated by general assemblies to adopt resolutions by consensus, and generally egalitarian ideals. Such environment is not attractive to nationalists, or neo-fascists.

[levp]

49. Isn't all this

the reason why OWS isn't here, but Maidan's protesters are?

[another_liberal]

56. Do you support beating policemen with lead pipes?

Are you in favor of setting buildings on fire and throwing Molotov cocktails at people you disagree with?

[levp]

64. Back at you

Do you support shooting protesters and driving over them with vehicles?

Elderly women clustered on the sidewalk, heedless of the explosions and gunshots, and heckled the police, yelling, “Killers!” and “Shoot us! Just shoot us, kill us, kill us, you bastards!”

Kiev Protesters Set Square Ablaze to Thwart Police

[On the Road]

72. "...similarity to the Occupy movement"

lol

[joshcryer]

22. Where are you getting that number?

I see much different numbers but it's fluid right now.

[cvoogt]

2. Also on YouTube

[Blue_Tires]

8. What's on fire in the vid?

[Daemonaquila]

10. What isn't?

There are a lot of different things, from the protestors' tents to buildings to cars (mainly police cars) to tires to even a water cannon that protestors set on fire to protect themselves.

[Blue_Tires]

13. I was just trying to make it out

I didn't know if it was a building, a huge bonfire, or what....

[levp]

17. Aside from small fires on the square,

Trade Union Building is completely on fire as well.

"Black Tuesday".

[cvoogt]

20. oxygen mostly

but seriously, it's hard to tell. I saw people throwing burning things at riot police, and police brandishing AK74's and wielding batons. Not sure about all the other stuff - it's a blur and I can't understand a thing, but it looks serious.

[joshcryer]

23. They built a firewall because it's the best way to keep police back.

You can't charge into a wall of fire.

[OKNancy]

3. It's terrible

Are those Orthodox priests chanting?

[Daemonaquila]

4. Yes.

I found the timing a bit ominous that they stopped right when there was a big explosion. Hopefully just coincidence.

[OKNancy]

7. times like this is when twitter can be a real education

and have value.

#Kiev

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Yes, it was the Our Father.

Either Ukrainian Orthodox or Ukrainian Catholic.

[Blue_Tires]

9. BBC live feed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26244542

[Daemonaquila]

12. Other live sources -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/police-advance-on-euromaidan-following-a-government-ultimatum-live-updates-337067.html

[OKNancy]

14. I can't get this out of my head

Mussorgsky "The Great Gate of Kiev" - best heard turned up really loud

[johnp3907]

18. Me too!

But the Emerson, Lake, and Palmer version. Ouch!

[freshwest]

63. Thank you! How wonderful. Looking for more. n/t

[cvoogt]

21. something's on fire inside

which building is that?

[joshcryer]

24. Trade Union building, the opposition's headquarters.

[cvoogt]

25. thx

[joshcryer]

26. Video of unarmed protester being murdered (death):

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203429093993614&set=vb.1400436267

It's not close up but you will be looking at someone being shot fatally.

[joshcryer]

28. 20 civilians, 7 police dead, up to 500-1000 wounded, is the best data I see.

[Daemonaquila]

30. They're calling for medical help.

I grew up speaking Ukraininan (very rusty) and have been listening to the live feed at work. A little while ago, one of the women at the tent put out a general call for any support that medical people are willing to give. Sounds like a LOT of hurt people.

[Purveyor]

31. I knew once the end of the Olympics drew near, action was going to be taken

by the gov't/putin/et al.

IMO Putin will go to the mat over Ukraine.

[dipsydoodle]

37. The protests are being stirred up by the West

Not Putin.

[another_liberal]

38. No one wants to believe that truth.

It fits most peoples' preconceived notions better if Putin is always the bad guy.

I do have to agree with you, however, and can see no reason he would want this to happen. There are those, however, who were getting very nervous that a compromise deal was about to be reached a compromise deal which could have prevented this violence.

Eventually everyone will know who really instigated this new round of violence. For now, it more acceptable to just blame that mean old Russian Putin.

[dipsydoodle]

42. He has no motive to do so

other than maintaining the status quo of a protected border cushion , which the west on the other hand wants to remove , and increasing trade.

There is nothing charitable about the west's approaches which are likely to destroy the economy of Ukraine. Best result the east of Ukraine can get now would be to become a separate nation - much of what they produce can only be exported to Russia : not the EU. You will find elsewhere that the is little demand from the EU and others for the goods which west Ukraine produces , nowhere near current exports to Russians, leaving only the EU as the net beneficiary of a trade agreement until Ukraine runs out of foreign reserves completely and the whole mess stagnates.

[joshcryer]

46. Ukraine makes an important Iron Curtain.

That alone is motive enough.

[another_liberal]

55. Think we're still in the Cold War, eh?

Ukraine's border with the West is nothing like the Iron Curtain was, and Putin is not even close to being a Brezhnev, let alone a Stalin or a Khrushchev.

[joshcryer]

57. It's the largest boarder between Russia and ... NATO.

The last thing Russia needs is Ukraine getting into NATO.

[another_liberal]

58. You are pretty much right about that . . .

I'm sure Russia has had more than enough of NATO's eastward expansion. After all, at the time of the Soviet Union's break-up NATO did promise never to take into its alliance any former Warsaw Pact countries (so much for promises). None of that, however, makes Ukraine's Western border an "Iron Curtain."

[joshcryer]

68. It would effectively be a new Iron Curtain.

Not sure why this is controversial. There are plenty of others making the same sorts of comparisons.

If there was a trilateral agreement this would be over so quick.

[another_liberal]

69. I know what the Iron Curtain was.

The border of Ukraine is no Iron Curtain, despite how many people may wish to call it one.

[joshcryer]

70. Effectively.

[another_liberal]

71. It is clearly a border of great importance . . .

However, to suggest it is in fact an "Iron Curtain" is just resorting to buzz word manipulation.

[pampango]

43. Is it not possible that Ukrainians actually have aspirations of their own and

don't need to be "stirred up" by the West or Putin? Poor souls have no dreams for themselves and their country that would motivate them to spend a Ukrainian winter living in tents in a public square.

[dipsydoodle]

44. I couldn't agree more

but external forces do seem to be driving the situation.

For the time being in the absence of the $15 billion from Russia, which the EU and US have refused outright to match , the country would be skint by 2015.

[joshcryer]

45. Only because Russia ripped them off for gas for so long.

[dipsydoodle]

48. The previous figure was agreed by Yulia Tymoshenko :

not their current government. Associated with that is the reason she's in prison.

[levp]

50. Which means

that it wasn't a good deal for Ukraine, hence the previous poster's point is valid - Russian state-owned gas/oil company ripped Ukraine off using their monopolistic position.

[joshcryer]

54. Also a lot of gas was unaccounted for.

It could've been the Russians doing it, the Ukrainians doing it, or even a little bit of both. But Ukraine got handed the responsibility for it. Someone didn't read the contract. And I guess it wasn't insured for losses (not sure how that would work but you'd think some fall back would happen if gas suddenly disappears from storage).

[Daemonaquila]

53. I disagree with some of your analysis.

There is no question that Ukraine is in deep financial weeds thanks to both east and west interference. Ukraine is a bread basket, a valuable piece of land strategically, a land of damned fine minds and resources, and more. Everyone has wanted a piece of Ukraine for political or economic reasons, or both. But frankly, the moment Ukraine blinked and started to disarm under pressure, its chances for independence became slimmer by the minute.

I think that certainly the external forces are at play. Russia has done its best to bankrupt Ukraine, making it beholden in every way. The EU deal is not much better, with Ukraine too weak to become a member and much of its economic value lost or locked up due to its crushing debts. I suspect but Russia and the EU are staying out of it, waiting for the fires to die (literally, at this point). A weak Ukraine is a benefit to both, though moreso for Russia. Neither needs to drive anything.

There is a genuine people's uprising going on. Unfortunately, the Orange Revolution may have been the last, best opportunity, and we saw what a disaster it became when all the dust settled. The Ukrainian people understand very well that their only hope is in independence and in rebuilding their nation. To do that, they have to end the rampant corruption on both the street level and the highest levels as pieces of the country or its economy get parceled out to put a band-aid a problem or for a leader's short-term benefit.

[OKNancy]

60. +1

[joshcryer]

47. You don't understand.

Last edited Tue Feb 18, 2014, 09:29 PM - Edit history (1)

If a protest movement isn't anti-American, then that protest movement is false and made up and the omnipotent CIA is there making it happen.

[levp]

52. What

I keep telling people: enemy of your enemy is not always your friend. All corollaries of this ("friend of my friend", etc.) often fail as well.

The fact that Putin opposes United States' policies that I don't like (i.e. universal spying) does not make Putin my "friend".

[JDPriestly]

32. This is a serious showdown between Western Europe and Russia.

Frightening. I don't see how this will end.

The police have a terrific advantage at the moment, but the protestors' movement may grow a lot as more and more Ukrainians feel their national sovereignty to be once again threatened by Russia's vast and certainly in the past abusive power right next to them. I don't know enough about the situation there or even in Russia right now to judge what will happen.

[joshcryer]

33. The protesters are fighting for survival and representation at this point.

Anything that follows from that is up in the air.

[frwrfpos]

73. the protesters are cia backed

the cia and our fascist government is to blame

[joshcryer]

74. Paranoia of the highest degree.

[joshcryer]

34. What the FUCK is Geoffrey Pyatt directing traffic for?

Looks like he stops after a convoy of cars go by.

Possible extraction for diplomats?

[Blue_Tires]

39. I don't know where in the city he is

maybe he's trying to ease congestion in front of the embassy?

or maybe there is a car or cars with friends/family/colleagues/supplies and he can't get them on their way until the cars ahead clears out?

[joshcryer]

40. Geoffrey Pyatt just condemned Yanukovych for the deaths.

I think that explains it. He was helping get people out of there before making the statement.

[MattSh]

76. Definitely not.

The embassy in Kiev is of recent construction and is the most expensive building ever built in Kiev on a square foot basis. It's located at least five miles from the city center. The square foot cost of this building rivals the construction costs in many major US cities.

From Wikipedia...

The United States recognized the independence of Ukraine on December 26, 1991 and opened an Embassy in its capital, Kiev, in January 22, 1992. The U.S. Embassy in Kiev has moved to its new $247 million location in January 2012 on 4.5 hectares of land at 4 Aircraft Designer Igor Sikorsky Street, 04112 Kiev, Ukraine, close to Kiev’s northern outskirts.[3] The U.S. Embassy requested the Kiev City Council to rename Tankova Street in Shevchensky District, after the Ukrainian-born aircraft design engineer Igor Sikorsky. The embassy is a 15 minute walk from the Beresteiska Metro station. Today U.S. Embassy in Kiev is staffed by approximately 181 Americans and more than 560 Ukrainians, representing more than a dozen US Government departments and agencies.

[VA_Jill]

36. My mom's caregiver

who lived with her the last couple of years of her life, was adopted out of an orphanage in Kiev as a young child. She went back there this past summer and reconnected with some family she had found online. She is having a really hard time with all this that is going on. I feel very bad for her. I think some of her family may be involved in the protests.

[brooklynite]

51. Now do we LIKE these protestors?

Or are they more CIA plants, like some folks here say the protestors in Venezuela are?

[another_liberal]

59. I don't like anyone . . .

Speaking only for myself, I don't like anyone who throws firebombs at other human beings as a form of protest.

[joshcryer]

62. How about live rounds against people with rocks?

[another_liberal]

66. No one should be shot for peacefully protesting.

However, throwing rocks is a provocation to those on the receiving end, and the real problem is those protesters who are not just throwing rocks.

[joshcryer]

67. So the ones throwing rocks are fair game?

Because others have guns?

[joshcryer]

61. I never 'liked' them but I supported their cause against authoritarians.

Both sides are ideologically not worth really associating ones self with, but after the anti-protest law went into effect it went from being an ultra nationalist against Russia to being a protester against suppression.

[joshcryer]

65. edit

apparently that entire thing was from Jan, I overlooked the date, but it was tweeted as recent news, my bad

[dipsydoodle]

77. 23rd January ?

Same picture here :

A huge crowd of demonstrators has surrounded the US embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, protesting against Washington’s meddling in the country’s internal affairs.

The event was organized by Kievans for Clean City, a new pro-government activist group which has spoken out against the rioters and violence in downtown Kiev.

Several thousand demonstrators are taking part, urging the US to “stop sponsoring” mass unrests, local media reported.

“The US is behind everything that is happening in Kiev’s downtown right now. The financing is coming from over there. This has to be stopped. That is what we came out here to say to the whole world: ‘US - stop! US - there needs to be peace in Ukraine,’” said Ivan Protsenko, one of the movement’s leaders.

http://rt.com/news/ukraine-protest-us-embassy-056/

Above is the only lucid reference I could find when I searched the subject.

[joshcryer]

78. Whoops. Got carried away I guess. Thanks for the correction.

[dipsydoodle]

79. I wasn't being picky

Its good to know - I'd never noticed that before. I can't read acrylic whatever - did your link say they were paid to be there ?

[joshcryer]

80. Google translate said that yeah.

Apparently they caught a hooligan who claimed he was paid to act out. Who knows if he was doing that to save his ass or what.

[tofuandbeer]

75. Damn. The company I used to work for sent many of the computer tech jobs over there.

My boss used to fly over there a few times per year. He told me great stories about the kind, honest, funny people who live there.
Hope all turns out okay.

The reason the company I worked for sent the jobs over there was for the lower wages. So, I wasn't proud of that decision—I was pissed. The corporate mongrels blatantly called it 50/50: 50% of the jobs remain in the U.S., and 50% go to places like Kiev.

Corporations aren't people, they're demons.

Okay, I'm stepping off my lonely soap box.

[another_liberal]

81. "Corporations aren't people, they're demons!"

I want that on my next bumper sticker (maybe with some really frightful, eye-catching art work).

[tofuandbeer]

84. Yes!

[OKNancy]

82. the crowds are still very large

#t=1450968

[warrant46]

83. The Chain Mail Fist

Of Fascism