Voting in Aitkin, Columbia Heights, Faribault, Little Falls, Staples-Motley and Wayzata

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Anti-Government Protests In Ukraine Turn Deadly

The U.S. and the European Union are closely watching Ukraine amid news that the government was starting negotiations with opposition leaders to end the violence, which has left more than two dozen people dead since Tuesday.

A statement on the Ukrainian presidential website said


It's still unclear what the statement means. But Yatsenyuk, one of the opposition leaders who met with Yanukovych on Wednesday, 

 on his Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party's website: "The storming of the Maidan which the authorities had planned today will not take place."


Maidan is the local name for Independence Square.


Yatsenyuk added: "A truce has been declared. The main thing is to protect human life." The translation was provided by 

The development comes amid the worst violence to hit Ukraine since protests began last November, and on the eve of a visit by the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland. The international community on Wednesday urged restraint and threatened sanctions against those responsible for the violence.

In response to word of negotiations, President Obama said he hoped the move would "provide space for the sides to resolve their disagreements peacefully," according to The Associated Press. But, the AP reports, Obama also said he was monitoring the violence "very carefully."

, "at issue is Ukraine's future direction. Late last year, Yanukovych rejected a trade deal with the European Union in favor of 

, leading to protests against his government."


Earlier in the day, the prospect of even a pause in the violence seemed unlikely.


Maria Danilova, a reporter for the AP in Kiev, 

 that radical protesters confronted police Wednesday while more moderate protesters rallied and listened to speakers.


But, she said, she also saw young girls prepare Molotov cocktails and elderly women making stones and rocks to throw at the police. Kiev residents, Danilova said, were bringing food and medicine to the protesters.


"We're seeing an organized effort to keep up this protest," she said on Wednesday's 

.
Kiev's streets were littered with rocks, bricks, spent stun grenades and tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and burning tires — debris from Tuesday's deadly clashes between police and some of the thousands of anti-government protesters. At least 26 people were killed Tuesday and an additional 241 were injured, 

Before his announcement late Wednesday, Yanukovych blamed opposition leaders for the deadly violence, saying they "crossed a line when they called people to arms." He also accused them of trying "to seize power by resorting to pogroms, arsons and murders."


Earlier Wednesday, several thousand riot police tried to storm the burning barricades of the protesters' tent camp in Independence Square, 

"Police shot tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at the protesters, who responded in kind by hurling cobblestones and Molotov cocktails at police," the newspaper said. "Police also used powerful water cannons, aiming them at protesters on top of barricades. Both sides accused the other of using live ammunition."

 the BBC's David Stern said the protesters' complaints now extend well beyond the rejected trade deal.


On 'Morning Edition': David Stern of the BBC speaks from Kiev

"They want a new system," he said. They see the "whole [government] structure as rotten and corrupt. ... The EU has provided a symbol for the direction that these protesters want to go."

There are fears of civil war, Stern added. Protests have spread to other cities. "We're not at that point yet," he said, but "it is a divided country."

The international community continued to weigh in

President Obama, speaking in Mexico, warned of "consequences" for Ukraine if the violence doesn't stop.


Russian Foreign Ministry official Aleksandr Lukashevich, meanwhile, 

 as U.S. interference in Ukraine's affairs.
Foreign ministers from the EU nations planned to meet Thursday in Brussels and consider sanctions that could include "travel bans targeting the Ukrainian leadership and asset freezes," 

Mark Memmott

Author

The center of Kiev looks like a war zone today. Streets and squares in the capital of Ukraine are littered with rocks, bricks, spent stun grenades and tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and burning tires, the BBC's David Stern said Wednesday on Morning Edition.

Kiev is 'a war zone' as chaos continues in Ukraine

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox