Stop killing Ukrainian people: stop this senseless violence

What is going on in the Ukraine is a tragedy. It has to stop. Protests in Ukraine have turned into bloody crackdown. After a meeting with Ukrainian President Yanukovich opposition supporter A. Yatsenyuk said that Maidan will not be stormed. On Thursday 2014.02.20 peace between Ukraine government and its people was broken. Officers opened fire on protestants again. Numbers of dead and injured people are growing.

Witnesses have told that some died as a result of single gunshot wounds, typical of sniper fire. Officials said that one policeman had died and that 67 police troops had been captured by protesters. Eyewitnesses have told international news agencies that they have counted between 21 and 27 protesters' bodies after clashes in Kiev.

Video footage has emerged apparently showing snipers firing on demonstrators who had been trying to retake their protest camp in independence Square. Officials said more than 20 policemen had also been injured. Witnesses reported live rounds, petrol bombs and water cannon being used at Independence Square during this morning's clashes.

An opposition Twitter feed posted an image of 13 bodies in a makeshift mortuary in the lobby of the Hotel Ukraine. Earlier, several dozen protesters were using the lobby as a triage center for the wounded, and a priest arrived. Protesters - some of them armed - asked hotel guests for blankets to use as bandages.

A statement on the presidential website blames the opposition for starting the violence, saying the "calls for a truce and dialogue were nothing but a way of playing for time to mobilise and arm militants from Maidan [Independence Square]". Opposition leaders called the violence "an act of provocation" by the authorities.