“There will be many dead today,” Anatoly Volk, 38, one of the demonstrators, told The New York Times.
A tenuous truce between the government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych broke down last night, and at least 35 people died in hours of clashes in Independence Square aka Maidan.
Max Seddon of Buzzfeed reports:
Protesters who had held out against police on Independence Square, known as the Maidan, launched an offensive at 7:30 a.m., shooting at police and throwing Molotov cocktails. Fighting then escalated dramatically over the next hour. Riot police returned fire and threw stun grenades before retreating.
Clashes spread from the square to Hrushevskogo Street, the main locus of violence Tuesday in which at least 26 died, and up Institutska Street towards a district housing many government buildings. By mid-morning, protesters had reclaimed the positions they surrendered when police descended on them on Tuesday.
The Russian-backed security forces have responded with rifles and snipers. Dozens of people are dying.
Proof of police snipers. @KyivPost photographers Pavlo Podufalov just took this photo near Maidan. #euromaidanpic.twitter.com/wEzxP3l6tn
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 20, 2014Paramedic volunteer shot in the neck whites on social network "I'm dying". pic.twitter.com/0yhKuJ3EvH
— Bogdan Ovcharuk (@goddan) February 20, 2014This video shows unarmed protesters being picked off:
Here's a anti-government sniper:
There are clearly more shooters on the government's side:
A sniper shot out my hotel room window #Kiev, aiming at camera on tripod. #hotelukraine
— Matt McGarry (@mattmcgarry) February 20, 2014some context:for the #ukrainians snipers and police killing people in # kyiv centre are as shocking and unusual as in vienna,paris. #Ukraine
— Nataliya Gumenyuk (@ngumenyuk) February 20, 2014Clashes continued for hours.
Here's look at the other deadly weaponry that government forces are using, including AK-47s.
Bullets penetrated this bulletproof vest, killing one protester this morning. #euromaidan#Ukrainepic.twitter.com/PhnZCRAxln
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 20, 2014
The injured are being cared for in makeshift medical clinics and the dead are being lined in Maidan.
SEE ALSO: Here's What's Happening In Ukraine And Why It Matters