LIVE. Revolt in Ukraine.

[Triple B]

Another pic.  This one seems more EFK-esque.

[GM Franchise]

Ukrainian Government's Terrifying Orwellian Tactics As Protesters Are Tracked And Texted



http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/22/ukraine-kiev-protests_n_4643092.html

Like a nightmare straight out of George Orwell's 1984, the Ukrainian government is tracking protesters' mobile phones and texting them a very ominous message.

"Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance," those located near fighting between riot police and protesters were sent.

The texts were sent out soon after midnight, just after controversial new laws which ban nearly all forms of protest in the ex-Soviet country were implemented.

The new set of laws have enraged demonstrators. They allow jail terms of up to five years for those who blockade public buildings and the arrest of protesters wearing masks or helmets.

Three hours after the text was sent, riot police pushed past makeshift barricades of charred vehicles in Kiev near the Parliament and were met by protesters wearing in ski masks and helmets, and carrying sticks.

At least two people died on the streets early this morning – the first fatalities in a two-month long protest that had been mostly peaceful until this week.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that the protests are "getting out of control".

He described the violent clashesas "scary" and accused EU politicians of stirring up the situation.

But opposition leaders have accused the Ukrainian government of provoking the very violence it has been condemning in an effort to discredit and possibly split the protest movement.

"The government tried to marginalise the protest, hoping that after 60 days in the cold people would become tired and leave, and only a different contingent would remain, only bums, but this did not work," said Yuri Syrotyuk, a deputy head of the nationalist Svoboda party and a member of Parliament.

"The government then decided to provoke a conflict, so some radical element would respond," he added. "They wanted a schism. They are following the Roman principle of divide and conquer. This is their plan, but it will not work."

[Mike Powers]

Am I a bad person for not giving a fuck?

[Ty]

Am I a bad person for not giving a fuck?

No, thats just coincidental :p

[Mike Powers]

*rimshot*

[Triple B]

Am I a bad person for not giving a fuck?

I figured you'd do your rimshot off that guy's strainer helmet.

[Mike Powers]

Good plan.

[J-Reb]

This is breaking my heart.

I've been to Ukraine several times.  I started taking trips back in 2003 to a small community called Zhytomyr and have been through some of the courtyards in Keiv where all of this is unfolding.  Zhytomyr is one of the poorest places in all of the world and a staggering number of males have simply offed themselves, intentionally and unintentionally, through alcohol poisoning.  The suicide rate is unreal. There isn't any work and the conditions a majority of Ukrainians live in is astounding.

I have friends who I've managed to get replies from by e-mail who can't even leave their houses.  It's unreal.

Thankfully, the two sides have agreed to a temporary cease fire.  Hoping it leads to an end to all this madness.

[GM Franchise]

Protesters storm governors' offices in Ukraine



http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/01/23/ukraine-opposition-gives-president-election-ultimatum/

Enraged protesters stormed government offices in three western Ukraine cities Thursday, forcing one governor to write a letter of resignation, as demonstrations against the pro-Russian president and his allies intensified outside the smoldering capital.

Kiev, the capital, has been the epicenter of two months of protests against President Viktor Yanukovych that have grown increasingly violent this week. Opposition leaders gave Yanukovych a deadline of Thursday evening to make concessions or face renewed clashes, quenching the barricade fires that had coated the capital in black smoke in a tenuous cease-fire.

As the deadline passed, the leaders were still in talks with Yanukovych. While the crowds waited for them to emerge from negotiations, Orthodox priests tried to maintain the shaky cease-fire at barricades.

The president called a special session of parliament next week to discuss the tensions, telling the parliament speaker: "The situation demands an urgent settlement." But there was no indication that the move represented a compromise, since the president's backers hold a majority of seats.

The protests began after Yanukovych turned away from closer ties with the European Union in favor of getting a bailout loan from Russia. They turned violent this week after he pushed through harsh anti-protest laws, rejecting protesters' demands that he resign and call new elections.

At least two protesters died Wednesday of gunshot wounds, a grim escalation that also galvanized anger in western Ukraine, where support for Yanukovych is virtually non-existent and most residents want closer ties to the 28-nation EU.

In Lviv, a city in near the Polish border 450 kilometers (280 miles) west of Kiev, hundreds of activists burst Thursday into the office of regional governor Oleh Salo, a Yanukovych appointee, shouting "Revolution!" and singing Christmas carols.

After surrounding him and forcing him to sign a resignation letter, an activist ripped it out of Salo's hands and lifted it up to the cheers and applause of the crowd. Salo later retracted his signature, saying he had been coerced.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters smashed windows, broke doors and stormed into the governor's office in the city of Rivne, shouting "Down with the gang!" -- a common reference to Yanukovych's government. Once inside, they sang the national anthem.

Angry crowds also besieged government offices in other western regions.

Meanwhile, anger spread after a video was released online appearing to show police abusing and humiliating a naked protester in what looked like a location close to the site of the Kiev clashes.

In the video, a young man, his body covered in multiple bruises, wearing nothing but socks, is made to stand on the snow in freezing temperatures, while a policeman punches him in the head and others force him to pose for photos.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement, apologizing "for the impermissible actions of people wearing police uniforms" and launched an investigation into the incident.

The protests have been centered on Kiev's main square, where demonstrators have defended a large tent camp for nearly two months. On Wednesday, riot police moved to dismantle barricades erected next to a government district nearby and two people were fatally shot in the clashes.

The opposition has blamed the deaths on authorities, but Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Thursday that the two men's wounds were caused by hunting rifles, which the police do not possess.  The Interior Ministry said that the people could have been killed in order to escalate the crisis.

The opposition maintains that as many as five people died in Wednesday's the clashes, but say they have no evidence as the bodies were removed by authorities.

Azarov, Yanukovych's staunch ally, maintained a harsh stance against the protesters, calling their actions an attempted coup.

"It's not the opposition -- it's rebels who are acting against us," Azarov said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos.

The Interior Ministry said Thursday that 73 people have been detained, 52 of whom are being investigated for "mass riots" -- a new criminal charge that carries a prison sentence of up to eight years.

Reaction from the West and neighboring Russia has been mixed.

The United States has revoked the visas of Ukrainian officials linked to violence and threatened more sanctions.  On Thursday, it welcomed Yanukovych's face-to-face talks with the opposition as a "necessary first step toward resolving this crisis."

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday that if the situation in Ukraine does not stabilize, the EU "would assess possible consequences in its relationship." Barroso also said he had received assurances from Yanukovych that the Ukrainian leader did not foresee the need to impose a state of emergency.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her nation doesn't think this is the time to consider sanctions against the Ukrainian government but added that it must comply "with its obligations to secure fundamental democratic rights."

"We are extremely concerned -- not just concerned, appalled -- about the way in which laws have been pushed through that raise questions over these fundamental freedoms," Merkel said.

Russia, in turn, accused the West of meddling in Ukraine's affairs.

"We feel regret and indignation about the obvious foreign interference in the developments in Kiev," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The protesters, meanwhile, said they would give peace a chance -- a brief one.

"We're ready to wait so that new victims don't appear," said 30-year-old demonstrator Anatoly Lovchenko. "But if the government doesn't listen to our demands, we'll start up again."

[GM Franchise]

Cease-Fire in Kiev as Opposition Leaders Meet With Ukraine President



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/world/europe/ukraine.html

KIEV, Ukraine — After another night of clashes, protesters battling the police in the Ukrainian capital agreed to a temporary cease-fire on Thursday as opposition leaders planned to attend a second round of negotiations with President Viktor F. Yanukovich.

More than three hours of face-to-face talks on Wednesday afternoon yielded no progress and the opposition leaders have threatened an escalation of violence if Mr. Yanukovich does not agree to early presidential elections or make another major concession.

Earlier in the week, the three main opposition leaders — Vitali Klitschko of the Udar Party, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk of the Fatherland Party, and Oleg Tyagnibok of the nationalist Svoboda Party — had spoken out against the violence, and urged continued peaceful protest focused on presidential elections scheduled for February 2015.
Related Coverage

On Wednesday, however, after the fruitless initial round of talks with Mr. Yanukovich and other senior officials, the leaders said they were prepared to embrace the violent uprising. They issued an ultimatum, demanding a concession from Mr. Yanukovich within 24 hours.

"Tomorrow we will go forward together," Mr. Yatsenyuk said. "If there will be a bullet in the forehead, so be it. It will be an honest, just and brave action." Mr. Klitschko said, "Tomorrow, if the president won't listen to us we will go into attack. There is no other way."

The protests in Ukraine, which began in late November, turned deadly for the first time on Wednesday. The General Prosecutor's office confirmed that two men had been shot to death during battles with the police. A coordinator of medical services for the opposition has put the death toll at five, including two other shooting victims and a man who fell from the colonnaded entrance to the Dynamo soccer stadium, which protesters had climbed to hurl rocks and fire bombs.

There were also signs on Thursday that protest activity was stepping up in Western Ukraine, which is a stronghold of support for greater integration with Europe and is home to many of the demonstrators on the streets of Kiev. In Lviv, the biggest city in the West, protesters occupied the regional administration building and Ukrainian news media reported that the head of the regional administration had resigned.

The news site Ukrainska Pravda reported a similar action in the city of Rivne, where it said that several thousand protesters had broken through glass doors and occupied the headquarters of the regional administration.

The demonstrators in Kiev represent a motley cross-section of the Ukrainian population, who in many cases are united only by their opposition to Mr. Yanukovich and their outrage over the government's treatment of demonstrators and its efforts to suppress political dissent.

Many of the men on the front line of the violent conflict with the authorities hail from Western Ukraine and are supporters of Svoboda, the nationalist faction in Parliament led by Mr. Tyagnibok, or other even further right-leaning groups, including an organization called Right Factor.

But those willing to risk being close to the violence are supported by thousands more who confine their activities to Independence Square, which has been occupied since Dec. 1. There, the heavily barricaded square remains peaceful, with a stage where opposition leaders make speeches and a tent city where many demonstrators have been living.

The occupied Trade Unions building there serves as a makeshift headquarters, with a press center and a ground floor kitchen that keeps the demonstrators well -fed. On Wednesday, volunteers outside the building's entrance were sorting through piles of shopping bags of medication and first aid supplies that had been donated to treat victims of the violence. Nearby, protesters with sledgehammers and pickaxes broke apart the cobblestones on the square and bagged them to be used as weapons against the police, in the conflict zone about a quarter-mile away.

[Jerry McClean]

I also know someone from Ukraine. It's hard to believe it's come to this. So little about the Russian's in some of those articles too who are the ones who blocked Ukraine's closer links to the EU and started all of this!

[Marq]

What I wouldn't give to be playing Viktor Kovalenko again right now.

[Triple B]

Shit's going down as we speak

[Triple B]

It continues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_LFrMcoEm4

[GM Franchise]

Apparently it ended albeit briefly and then started up again or something along those lines.