Ukraine Update.

If everyone at the Winter Olympics seems tired and stressed out this is the reason why.

As previously mentioned yesterday the Ukrainian Parliament was scheduled to debate changes to the constitution. This prompted ant-Russian protesters who have been camped out in the capital since November 2013 to attempt to storm the Parliament building. Having been stopped by the police they proceeded to run riot in the streets around Parliament. By around 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) at least five people had been killed including a police officer who'd been shot in the throat.

Obviously this is not acceptable in any capital city so at around 16:00 local time the Ukrainian government warned the protesters to leave the area before 18:00 (local) at which point police would move in to clear the area. In response protesters put out an open call for people to join the protest. At 18:00 (local) the police operation began and the protesters set fire to the barricades in an effort to block the police's path. This left the police with two option; either stand off or mount a hard assault on the protesters lines using things like armoured bulldozers which risks significant loss of civilian life. In the end the police opted for the first option leading to a stand-off in which petrol bombs, tear gas and live fire were exchanged by both sides. During this stand-off the protesters set fire to the trade unions building close to their camp and the death toll has risen to 26.

During this stand-off the Ukrainian President Yanukovych invited opposition politicians including Vitaly Klitschko to emergency talks aimed at ending the stand-off. Although this seems like a genuine attempt to end the violence these talks also served to highlight why the situation in Ukraine has provided such an apt metaphor for the situation in Syria. In short in both situations the people who the US in particular promote as the leaders of the protesters have absolutely no influence over the people on the ground who are engaged in extreme violence. For example the last time former heavyweight boxing champion Klitschko addressed the rioters calling for calm they beat him up.

While these late night talks were going on an unidentified opposition politician starting telling everyone that as soon as they finished Yanukovych would address the nation. This was an open lie intended to keep the rioting going by creating speculation that Yanukovych was about the announce his resignation and the keep everyone - especially Ukraine's neighbour Russia - awake in a state of tense expectation.

Overnight European nations led by Ukraine's other neighbour Poland have called for sanctions to be put in place in response to the violence and the European Union (EU) has this morning announced that it is considering putting in place sanctions in place against those responsible for the violence.

That puts the EU in an extremely difficult position because keen to prove to Saudi Arabia and Qatar that it's getting tough with Russia over Syria the US is actually being quite open about the fact it is responsible for the violence in Ukraine. For example the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt yesterday released a video showing himself directing traffic in and around the protest camp - the message quite simply being; "We're directing things here."

As a result if the EU is to impose sanctions against the people responsible for the violence in Ukraine it is going to have to impose sanctions against the US.


(Originally Posted) 13:00 on 19/2/14 (UK date).