One dead in Ukraine clash in eastern city

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - A young man was stabbed to death and more than a dozen people were in hospital on Thursday after rival Ukrainian demonstrators clashed in the mainly Russian-speaking eastern city of Donetsk, medical officials said.

In the worst violence since last month's overthrow of Ukraine's Moscow-backed president, hundreds of people waving Russian flags and chanting for Russian President Vladimir Putin scuffled on the central Lenin Square with demonstrators flying Ukrainian flags and condemning Russia's takeover of Crimea.

By late evening, the streets were quiet again.

The local health authority said a 22-year-old local man died of a knife wound and 15 others were being treated in hospital. Organizers of the pro-EU rally, which also denounced Russia's takeover of Crimea, said the dead man was from their group.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-ukraine-crisis-donetsk-idUSBREA2C20Z20140313

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Will we be seeing Putin's Not-Russian-Russian-Brigade in Donetsk soon?

Video links on Kyiv Post reporter Christopher Miller's Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM

[uhnope]

1. this is terrible and will help Putin because it will increase divisiveness

[Igel]

2. Two dead.

One of them was a officer of some sort in the local "Svoboda" organization. The other was the guy in the OP. The "One Ukraine" meeting started first, but I don't think the pro-Russian protest was entirely grass roots.

Ukr press say that in one case, one pro-unity guy was forced to kneel while a "court" was held over him. Other pro-Russian activists broke it up, saying that they weren't "fascists."

One telecast showed a lot of the post-violence congregating. Frequent chants of "Rah-si-ya!" and even "Berkut" (which is a strange thing to chant, unless you like Ukrainian-bashing by Yanukovich's praetorian guard).

The reason I don't think the pro-Russian protest was grass roots is fairly simple. A long line of buses on the side of the square. They weren't mass-transit buses. They were charter.

[uhnope]

3. of course Putin is busing in thugs and protesters

that would be Putin-the-old-KGB-boss tactic #32 from the playbook