67 unarmed members of the police, all cadets, left the government ranks and surrendered to the protesters, they were taken to one of the buildings and guarded / supervised to make sure they were really giving up and not attempting to attack the protesters from inside their ranks. It is not really fair to claim they were being held hostage as Russian backed media did. All 67 were released unharmed, after being given food once the fighting died down.
The protesters and Berkut were firing at each other, is true but but one needs to put it in perspective. Government troops have been shooting and killing protesters with live ammo for more than a month. The protesters did not shoot back until this week. There are 400 000 licensed weapons in Kiev, mainly small bore hunting rifles. Only when it became obvious that government forces were using a shoot to kill approach by letting loose snipers on unarmed protesters did some of the protesters go home and collect their guns. By firing back it made things harder for the snipers to kill with impunity.
The snipers were using AK47s amd special heavy callibre AK 100s with huge telescopic sites. These fire massve rounds that are designed to disable vehicles by going through body work and wrecking engine blocks. The snipers used these on people. There own people. All shot in the head, neck or heart, in other words professional government hitmen, shooting to kill.
Maidan square is littered with these today:
Please go to Euromaidan in English on facebook or youtube and you will see photos of those who died, you will notice that most of them were middle class types, professionals and students.
You will also find videos of unarmed protesers being shot dead as they try to reach their wounded friends and brave medical staff who go to their aid behind flimsy shields also being killed by heavy callibre sniper fire.
I have not posted links or videos here as videos of people being shot dead will breach HC's codes of decency
If you owned a gun and your government was shooting at you with heavy callibre sniper fire, would you shoot back?
It is still not over yet, there was plenty of gunfire heard on the streets of Kiev last night but curiously not on Maidan, who was doing the shooting I have no idea but I heard it clearly as I lay in bed.
As for today the sky is blue, the sun is out and we wait to see what Yanukovich and Putin will decide to do next
