Kiev's Euromaidan protesters began 2014 the same way they ended 2013: by rioting in the streets in an attempt to bring down their government. Key victories have already been won, with Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his cabinet resigning. The demonstrators also forced the annulment of a new anti-protest law that was, ironically, the cause of much of their protesting.
The protesters haven't been contented by this, however, and are still out in the streets, demanding the head of President Viktor Yanukovych and the staging of fresh elections. What began as a protest against the Ukrainian government's close ties with Russian leader Vladimir Putin has become a focus for wider discontent. However, Yanukovych seems in no mood to relinquish his power. As the social unrest spreads across the country, its first post-Soviet President, Leonid Kravchuk, has gone as far as to warn that Ukraine is on the brink of civil war. Dozens of people have lost their lives in just the last two days of violence.
At the end of January, VICE flew to Kiev as rioters hurled Molotov cocktails at police and the city turned into a battlefield.
Thursday 20 February 2014
Ukraine Burning
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Yanukovych and his party are the legitimate, democratically elected government, and the demonstraters are attempting to overthrow it violently rather than waiting for the next elections.
If they succeed, yhe odds favoring a Russian military intervention rise, and the probability of a war in Central Europe becomesnsubstantial. And Obama, who has icitedbthe violence, will have played the role of the Kaiser in 1914.
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