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| Europe |
| Snipers Shooting At Both Sides During Ukraine Demonstrations, Russian Special Forces? |
| 2014-03-08 |
| The government's new health minister — a doctor who helped oversee medical treatment for casualties during the protests — told The Associated Press that the similarity of bullet wounds suffered by opposition victims and police indicates the shooters were trying to stoke tensions on both sides and spark even greater violence, with the goal of toppling Yanukovych. "I think it wasn't just a part of the old regime that (plotted the provocation), but it was also the work of Russian special forces who served and maintained the ideology of the (old) regime," Health Minister Oleh Musiy said. This much is known: Snipers firing powerful rifles from rooftops and windows shot scores of people in the heart of Kiev. Some victims were opposition protesters, but many were civilian bystanders clearly not involved in the clashes. Among the dead were medics, as well as police officers. A majority of the more than 100 people who died in the violence were shot by snipers; hundreds were also injured by the gunfire and other street fighting. On Tuesday, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov signaled that investigators may be turning their attention away from Ukrainian responsibility. "I can say only one thing: the key factor in this uprising, that spilled blood in Kiev and that turned the country upside down and shocked it, was a third force," Avakov was quoted as saying by Interfax. "And this force was not Ukrainian." The next day, Prosecutor General Oleh Makhntisky said officials have found sniper bullet casings on the National Bank building a few hundred yards up the hill from Maidan, the square that became the center and the symbol of the anti-government protests. He said investigators have confirmed snipers also fired from the Hotel Ukraine, directly on the square, and the House of Chimeras, an official residence next to the presidential administration building. Deputy Interior Minister Mykola Velichkovych told AP that commanders of sniper units overseen by the Berkut police force and other Interior Ministry subdivisions have denied to investigators that they had given orders to shoot anyone. Musiy, who spent more than two months organizing medical units on Maidan, said that on Feb. 20 roughly 40 civilians and protesters were brought with fatal bullet wounds to the makeshift hospital set up near the square. But he said medics also treated three police officers whose wounds were identical. |
| Posted by:Omavising Ebbemp9815 |
| #6 Putin will do what he must to achieve his ends. He is not greatly influenced by...so called world opinion. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2014-03-08 19:46 |
| #5 So 1980's! Gee didn't we hear Zero say that to Romney? Hmmm, Zero is batting in the 900's, that is if being wrong is good. This does sound pretty old school USSR, Putin is running off an old playbook. He should be pretty predictable, if all the cold war officers have not been thrown out of the pentagon by Zero's purge. So now it will get stale, another crisis will arise and we will forget all about the Ukraine. He will go in and restore the country and hold elections. Once the opposition rises he will crush them with all the brutality Russia can muster. One question, will Putin crush them in a Soviet Georgia style operations or clandestine KGB eliminations??? |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2014-03-08 12:59 |
| #4 Just a few well placed sniper or mortar rounds here or there. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-03-08 11:32 |
| #3 Those who really know aren't telling, those who are talking don't know anything. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-03-08 07:26 |
| #2 "denied to investigators that they had given orders to shoot anyone" They didn't say nobody fired... |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-03-08 07:13 |
| #1 Cui bono? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-03-08 03:59 |