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Kiev’s Brief Truce Shatters in Bursts of Gunfire As Kiev Truce Shatters, Rumors Grow That President Will Declare State of Emergency
(about 2 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s descent into a spiral of violence accelerated on Thursday as protesters and riot police officers used firearms in a clash as opposition members sought to reclaim areas of Independence Square, the symbolic central plaza in the capital that had been taken by the police two days before. KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine descended into a deeper spiral of violence on Thursday as both protesters and riot policemen used firearms in clashes and fear intensified that President Viktor F. Yanukovych would declare a state of emergency, a move that could herald the deployment of the military.
The fighting shattered a truce declared just hours earlier. Just after dawn, young men in ski masks opened a breach in their barricade near a stage on the square, ran across a hundred yards of smoldering debris and surged toward riot police officers who were firing at them with shotguns. The former Soviet republic of 46 million hurtled toward a dangerous new phase of a three-month-long political crisis after a truce announced overnight by Mr. Yanukovych and opposition leaders collapsed amid accusations of treachery on both sides.
Protesters pushed back the police amid a continual racket of gunshots and by around 10 a.m. had recaptured the entire square, but at the cost of creating a scene of mayhem. The fighting left bodies lined up on a sidewalk, makeshift clinics crammed with the bloody wounded, and sirens and gunfire ringing through the center of the city. Short of calling in troops it looked unlikely that Mr. Yanukovych could restore his battered authority and regain control of the capital, Kiev, as a growing number of once loyal members of his ruling Party of Regions, including the mayor of Kiev, announced they were quitting the party to protest the bloodshed.
Eleven bodies were taken to a makeshift morgue at the entrance to Independence Square on Thursday morning and an undetermined number were lying elsewhere. Around 28 people, including police officers, died in clashes earlier this week. The Interior Ministry said 29 police officers had been hospitalized with gunshot wounds. About the only thing that was entirely clear by Thursday afternoon was that protesters had reclaimed and even expanded territory in the center of Kiev that they had lost just two days earlier when police launched a bloody but unsuccessful assault on Independence Square, the focal point of protests since late November.
Demonstrators captured several dozen policemen, whom they marched, dazed and bloodied, toward the center of the square through a crowd of men who heckled and shoved them. As the protesters, reinforced by swarms of ordinary Kiev residents, erected new barricades around their extended protest zone, a woman mounted a stage to appeal for help from foreign governments to prevent the president from declaring a state of emergency.
“A state of emergency means the beginning of war. We cannot let that happen,” she said.
In the center of Kiev, however, war had basically broken out, with the police having been authorized to use live ammunition. Just after dawn, young men in ski masks opened a breach in their barricade near the stage on Independence Square, ran across a hundred yards of smoldering debris of what had been called a ring of fire to defend the stage, and confronted riot police officers who were firing at them with shotguns.
Unidentified snipers meanwhile opened fire. The total death toll from the morning’s clashes was unclear but witnesses said at least 21 protesters had been killed, raising the total death count in three days of mayhem in Kiev to nearly 50, including at least nine police officers.
By noon, 11 corpses had been laid out in a makeshift outdoor morgue under a Coca-Cola umbrella at the end of Independence Square. Other bodies were taken elsewhere.
The demonstrators captured at least several dozen policemen, whom they marched, dazed and bloody, toward the center of the square through a crowd of men who heckled and shoved them. A Ukrainian Orthodox priest accompanied the officers, pleading with their captors not to hurt them.
“People are very angry but we must not act like Yanukovych does,” said the priest, Nikolai Givailo.
There was no immediate comment from the government to swirling rumors that it planned to bring in the military to clear Independence Square, a task previously left in the hands of badly stretched anti-riot forces under the Interior Ministry. In an ominous sign of turmoil in the leadership about how to proceed, President Yanukovych on Wednesday dismissed the country’s top general.
On Thursday the mayor of Kiev, who is also a member of parliament for the ruling Party of Regions, announced that he was qung the party. He was one of nearly a dozen party members to announce their resignation Thursday, according to Ukrainian media reports. “Human lives should be the highest value in our state and nothing can contradict this principal,” said the mayor Volodymyr Makeyenko in a video statement.
Lamenting that the violence was claiming “tens of ordinary people ever day,” he noted bitterly that “no oligarch has died, no politician has died.”
With antigovernment demonstrators surging toward and then past police lines, what had been a narrowly circumscribed protest area ringed by police officers expanded rapidly and, amid a continual racket of gunshots, reached up a hill overlooking the square to the edge of the main government district of the capital.
The fighting left bodies lined up on a sidewalk, and makeshift clinics crammed with bloody wounded, and sirens and gunfire ringing through the center of the city.
“There will be many dead today,” Anatoly Volk, 38, one of the demonstrators, said. He was watching stretchers carry dead and wounded men down a stairway slick with mud near the Hotel Ukraina.“There will be many dead today,” Anatoly Volk, 38, one of the demonstrators, said. He was watching stretchers carry dead and wounded men down a stairway slick with mud near the Hotel Ukraina.
Mr. Volk said the protesters had decided to try to retake the square because they believed the truce announced around midnight was a ruse. The young men in ski masks who led the push, he said, believed it was a stalling maneuver by President Viktor F. Yanukovych to buy time to deploy troops in the capital after the authorities decided the civilian police had insufficient forces to clear the square. Mr. Volk said the protesters had decided to try to retake the square because they believed the truce announced around midnight was a ruse. The young men in ski masks who led the push, he said, believed it was a stalling maneuver by President Yanukovych to buy time to deploy troops in the capital after the authorities decided the civilian police had insufficient forces to clear the square.
“A truce means real negotiations,” Mr. Volk said. “They are just delaying to make time to bring in more troops. They didn’t have the forces to storm us last night. So we are expanding our barricades to where they were before. We are restoring what we had.”“A truce means real negotiations,” Mr. Volk said. “They are just delaying to make time to bring in more troops. They didn’t have the forces to storm us last night. So we are expanding our barricades to where they were before. We are restoring what we had.”
The foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland had been scheduled to meet with Mr. Yanukovych on Thursday morning but the meeting was delayed, ostensibly for security reasons. It was not clear when the meeting would take place. S
Several thousand young men carrying clubs advanced up a street near government buildings and Parliament and stopped at a line of riot police officers. The fighting halted as they negotiated with a police commander there. The protesters cleared a corridor so an ambulance, apparently carrying wounded policemen, could drive out from the police position through their crowd.
On Independence Square, the wounded were taken to improvised clinics set up in a shoe store and a post office after the main medical center in the occupied Trade Unions Building burned on Tuesday night. The dead were lying on a sidewalk beside the Kozatskiy Hotel, where nine bodies were laid out under blankets by around 11 a.m.
Gunfire crackled around the Hotel Ukraina and protesters were hit in front of the Globus shopping mall. One protester walked near the fighting with a double-barreled shotgun slung over a shoulder.Gunfire crackled around the Hotel Ukraina and protesters were hit in front of the Globus shopping mall. One protester walked near the fighting with a double-barreled shotgun slung over a shoulder.
“If our guys are dying, excuse me, what can I say,” said the man, who offered only his first name, Oleg. “If they didn’t use guns, the idea never would have come to us.”“If our guys are dying, excuse me, what can I say,” said the man, who offered only his first name, Oleg. “If they didn’t use guns, the idea never would have come to us.”
The wide use of firearms in the center of the city was a new and ominous phase for the protest movement.The wide use of firearms in the center of the city was a new and ominous phase for the protest movement.
Supporters of the opposition earlier this week overran an Interior Ministry garrison near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and captured its armory; it was unclear whether any of the commandeered weapons were being used on Thursday in the fighting in the capital.Supporters of the opposition earlier this week overran an Interior Ministry garrison near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and captured its armory; it was unclear whether any of the commandeered weapons were being used on Thursday in the fighting in the capital.
Most of the shooting previously had involved nonlethal rubber bullets. Nonetheless, during the fighting on Tuesday, at least 25 people died, including nine police officers. The part of the square back under the control of the protesters after the fighting Thursday was an otherworldly panorama of soot-smeared paving stones, debris and coils of smoldering wire from burned tires.
From the stage on the square, a speaker yelled “Glory to Ukraine!” and the crowd yelled back “Glory to its heroes!”From the stage on the square, a speaker yelled “Glory to Ukraine!” and the crowd yelled back “Glory to its heroes!”
The part of the square back under the control of the protesters after the fighting Thursdaywas an otherworldly panorama of soot-smeared paving stones, debris and coils of smoldering wire from burned tires.
The protests began in November when Mr. Yanukovych rejected a trade and economic agreement with the European Union and turned instead to Russia for financial aid.The protests began in November when Mr. Yanukovych rejected a trade and economic agreement with the European Union and turned instead to Russia for financial aid.
On Wednesday the authorities announced a nationwide “antiterrorist operation” with the goal of keeping guns and power from what they called extremist groups, and they dismissed the country’s top general. Later, they declared that a truce had been reached with political leaders of the opposition, who confirmed that overnight. The foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland met with Mr. Yanukovych on Thursday morning in Kiev but the outcome of that meeting was not immediately clear. They were planning later to fly to Brussels, where European Union foreign ministers were meeting in an emergency session to devise a response to the Ukraine crisis, which was expected to include punitive sanctions.
The party website of an opposition leader, Vitali Klitschko, said the opposition had received assurances that there would be “no assault” on the main protest site, though even then it was uncertain that a pause in the conflict would hold, particularly among more determined street fighters. In fact, hours later, they attacked.
Since Tuesday, the government of Mr. Yanukovych and several thousand grimly determined protesters, along with their supporters in Russia and Europe, have faced off in a confrontation over the fate of this fractured country of 46 million.
The truce agreement was announced after indications — including the deployment of paratroopers to help protect military bases — that the Ukrainian authorities were concerned about maintaining control, particularly in the country’s west.
“In many regions of the country, municipal buildings, offices of the Interior Ministry, state security and the prosecutor general, army units and arms depots are being seized,” Oleksandr Yakimenko, the head of the state security service, the S.B.U., said in a televised statement.
“Military servants of the armed forces of Ukraine might be used in antiterrorist operations on the territory of Ukraine,” the Defense Ministry said, raising the prospect that Mr. Yanukovych could call on the armed forces to try to restore order and keep himself in office.
That statement brought a quick response from President Obama and other Western leaders, who sought to defuse the crisis even as their differences with Russia hardened in an escalating East-West struggle redolent of the Cold War.
It was not clear how the military could be legally deployed for what would be a domestic policing mission unless the authorities first declared a state of emergency, a step that Mr. Yanukovych has previously shied away from and for which the military has shown no enthusiasm. That was why the firing of the pro-European chief of the Ukrainian general staff, Volodymyr Zaman, set off alarms in the West.
Also raising concerns was the fact that American officials have sought to contact senior Ukrainian military officials by phone and “nobody is picking up,” a senior State Department official said. The United States has been warning against the imposition of a state of emergency “for months and months,” the official said.
Throughout the day on Wednesday, thousands of Kiev residents braved the riot police and roaming bands of pro-government supporters to visit the besieged protest encampment in Independence Square, now a harrowing vista of charred buildings and smoldering debris.
The residents brought supplies to the young men in masks and helmets who, for the authorities, are now the only true face of the country’s political tumult.
With the subway system shut down, they walked, carrying bags of groceries, tires and scrap wood for the protesters’ protective ring of burning barricades, and jerrycans of gasoline. Two middle-aged women walked nonchalantly down a central street toward Independence Square, known as Maidan, pushing a shopping cart rattling with ready-made firebombs.
The protesters are a hodgepodge of groups, some radical enough to alarm some European diplomats, who have been arguing for weeks over whether to impose sanctions on Ukrainian leaders, many of whom have assets outside the country. But few, if any, share Mr. Yanukovych’s — and also Russia’s — view that the government is simply a victim.
“Yanukovych claims to be the victim of the radicals of the Maidan, and that he did not want such violence. We accept that the opposition made a mistake,” said Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, who traveled to Kiev to see the Ukrainian president on Thursday morning, along with the with French and German foreign ministers. But in an interview before the truce deal, Mr. Sikorski, said the “president’s credibility with everyone is now zero.”
In a televised address to the nation on Wednesday, Mr. Yanukovych said opposition leaders had “crossed the limits when they called people to arms” and demanded that they “dissociate themselves from the radical forces that provoke bloodshed.”In a televised address to the nation on Wednesday, Mr. Yanukovych said opposition leaders had “crossed the limits when they called people to arms” and demanded that they “dissociate themselves from the radical forces that provoke bloodshed.”
The protest movement certainly contains extremist elements but, at least in Kiev and many other cities, particularly in the western regions, it has a wide base of public support. After talks with Mr. Yanukovych late Tuesday as violence spun out of control, the opposition leader Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk complained that the president had only a single offer: “that we surrender.”The protest movement certainly contains extremist elements but, at least in Kiev and many other cities, particularly in the western regions, it has a wide base of public support. After talks with Mr. Yanukovych late Tuesday as violence spun out of control, the opposition leader Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk complained that the president had only a single offer: “that we surrender.”
Adding to the Ukrainian leadership’s alarm on Wednesday were a string of reports from the west of the country, a longstanding bastion of antigovernment sentiment, that the offices of governors, prosecutors, the police and the state security service had been stormed by protesters and, in several cases, set on fire. Adding to the Ukrainian leadership’s alarm on Wednesday were a string of reports from the west of the country, a longstanding bastion of antigovernment sentiment, that the offices of governors, prosecutors, the police and the state security service had been stormed by protesters and, in several cases, set on fire. In Lviv, near the border with Poland, what had been a peaceful blockade of a sprawling compound housing barracks and the Interior Ministry’s western command turned early Wednesday into the seizure of a major military installation.
In Lviv, near the border with Poland, what had been a peaceful blockade of a sprawling compound housing barracks and the Interior Ministry’s western command turned early Wednesday into the seizure of a major military installation.
Andriy Porodko, 29, a businessman who had commanded the earlier blockade, said the “soldiers all surrendered” without a fight and had allowed protesters to take control of the compound, including an armory full of weapons.
Ihor Pochinok, the editor in chief of a Lviv newspaper, Ekspres, said the city was bubbling with fury at the assault on Tuesday on Independence Square but “was functioning normally, except for state authorities.”Ihor Pochinok, the editor in chief of a Lviv newspaper, Ekspres, said the city was bubbling with fury at the assault on Tuesday on Independence Square but “was functioning normally, except for state authorities.”
Protesters, he said, had also stormed the offices of the regional governor, a Yanukovych appointee, resuming an occupation that had ended just three days earlier, and raided the local headquarters of the state prosecutor, the state security service and several district police stations. Around 140 guns were seized from a police armory.Protesters, he said, had also stormed the offices of the regional governor, a Yanukovych appointee, resuming an occupation that had ended just three days earlier, and raided the local headquarters of the state prosecutor, the state security service and several district police stations. Around 140 guns were seized from a police armory.
Beyond Lviv, antigovernment activists besieged or seized police stations and administrative buildings in the western cities of Uzhgorod, Lutsk and Khmelnitsky and the eastern city of Poltava.Beyond Lviv, antigovernment activists besieged or seized police stations and administrative buildings in the western cities of Uzhgorod, Lutsk and Khmelnitsky and the eastern city of Poltava.
In Lutsk, protesters attacked the regional police department, which responded with stun grenades and other fire. The building was then set on fire by protesters throwing gasoline bombs.In Lutsk, protesters attacked the regional police department, which responded with stun grenades and other fire. The building was then set on fire by protesters throwing gasoline bombs.