Ukraine's Maidan Protests: US Diplomacy and Sniper Allegations

We have been actively engaged in what's been happening in the Ukraine.

These, uh, brave Ukrainians took to the streets in

order to

stand peacefully against tyranny

and

to demand democracy.

Uh,

not only has our embassy and our folks who are over there,

uh, folks like Vice President Biden, uh, have spoken directly,

uh,

to President Ya- uh, Yanukovych about our belief...

Uh, there has to be a way to restructure

the Ukrainian government in a way that allows the voices

of the opposition,

uh, and those folks on the streets to be

heard,

uh, in preparation for some sort of democratic

process.

A government with greater legitimacy and unity.

Uh, and that's gonna be challenging, but we're trying to help on the

negotiations

on that.

What do you think?

Uh, I think we're in play.

So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing,

and have the UN help

glue it, and, you know, fuck the EU.

There is a difference between private discussions that happen in the interagency

process, in the building, and what we convey publicly as a US

government,

and we have a responsibility to convey what our position is.

Of course, you're discussing a range of options on a

range of issues.

The truce didn't last long.

We left the hotel and ventured up towards the new front

line.

From one of the upper windows of the hotel, a shot rang out.

Up there. Okay, yeah. Our hotel. That window, one, two, three,

four, fifth row from the left,

second from the top one, there was open.

I saw the shooter. He was wearing one of the protester's green

helmets.

They were shooting directly to their heart, to their brain, and to

their neck.

All right, she's saying the use of deadly force by

qualified snipers, and she's

judging that on the way that, uh, uh, the rounds struck their victims

killing them instantly. What would you advise the government now?

Well, reportedly, re-reportedly, reportedly 20 policemen, uh, were killed,

uh,

today by snipers, and I saw TV footage, snipers, uh,

uh, shooting from, uh, a hotel they took over in downtown Kyiv.

If you're saying privately behind the scenes that you're cooking up a deal,

and then you're saying publicly that this is up for Ukrainians to decide,

those are two totally different things.

I understand that diplomatic discussions are sensitive, and you don't want

everything to come out, but those are two totally different,

totally different

positions.

Elise, what do you think happens behind closed

doors when people are discussing

issues internally through the interagency-

This is not discussing issues. This is talking about a deal that the U.S.

was cooking up

Then second, what was quite disturbing, the same Olga told that,

well, all evidence shows, uh, that people who were killed by

snipers from both sides among policemen and, um,

people from the streets, that they were the same snipers

killing people from both sides.

Well, that, yeah. So

So that-- And, and she also showed me some photos, uh,

she said that as

medical doctor she can, you know, say that it is the same, same

handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it's really

disturbing that now the new,

uh, new coalition, that they don't want to investigate what

exactly

happened so that there is now stronger and stronger understanding

that behind snipers they were -- it was not Yanukovych,

but it was somebody from the new coalition.