Posted on 12/11/2013 2:57:34 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
KIEV, Ukraine — Battalions of Ukrainian security forces early Wednesday stormed Independence Square, the central plaza in Kiev where protesters had been rallying against the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovich for more than two weeks.
By dawn, the police had taken control of a large section of the square and brought in front-end loaders and other heavy equipment to clear it. Tents and other remnants of the protest encampment were bulldozed, scooped up and lifted into a dump truck.
Then, shortly after 9 a.m., the authorities began an effort to retake the occupied Kiev City Hall building, setting off a fierce fight with demonstrators who had booby-trapped the building with elaborate defenses.
Meanwhile, thousands of demonstrators remained in the frigid cold on Independence Square, along with fresh deployments of security troops.
Hours after senior Western diplomats arrived here Tuesday for meetings with Mr. Yanukovich in an effort to defuse both the country’s slide into political chaos and a deepening financial crisis, thousands of riot police officers and security troops fanned out across Kiev, putting the Ukrainian capital in a virtual lockdown.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The square is full of rioters. An army officer says to Nicholas II, “Sire, you either abdicate or give the order to open fire.”
But firing on your own people creates its own sure, but slow poison.
These are Ukrainian nationalists seriously pissed off at Yanukovich for being a Russian suck up.
The guy is a convicted felon and canot even speak the Ukrainian language properly. That may seem a nit pick but it is not.
Yanukovich is looking at a Ceaucescu moment if he does not wise up.
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