This is going to become a larger and larger issue, and discredits the new Ukrainian coalition government. A leaked phone call between and Estonian diplomat returning from Ukraine and an EU diplomat (purportedly intercepted by pro-Yanukovich former security officials, but I think it was the Russians) confirms that these shootings are the subject of controversy and suspicion in Ukraine, and might be worldwide soon. However the U.S. is the last place you will hear it come to prominence. The video is followed by a news report about the leaked phone call.
WARNING: The first video is graphic and disturbing. This is a video of people being shot by snipers in cold blood.
These people were shot by gunmen shooting from behind them, from their own “side” of the battle lines. Their supposed martyrdom coincided with the opposition taking over and within 24 hours the elected president was driven from the country.
The Estonian foreign ministry confirmed the leaked conversation was accurate. It said: “Foreign minister Paet was giving an overview of what he had heard in Kiev and expressed concern over the situation on the ground. We reject the claim that Paet was giving an assessment of the opposition’s involvement in the violence.” Ashton’s office said it did not comment on leaks.
During the conversation, Paet quoted a woman named Olga – who the Russian media identified her as Olga Bogomolets, a doctor – blaming snipers from the opposition shooting the protesters.
“What was quite disturbing, this same Olga told that, well, all the evidence shows that people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides,” Paet said.
“So she also showed me some photos, she said that as medical doctor, she can say it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the new coalition, that they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened.”
“So there is a stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers it was not Yanukovych, it was somebody from the new coalition,” Paet says.
Ashton replies: “I think we do want to investigate. I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh,” Ashton says.
I must admit, I am still not convinced by this. We have no idea who fired the shots, only the direction from which they came. I do not discount the possibility that the opposition may have shot the protesters. However, I do not see the certainty in the statement that they “were shot by the opposition.”
How many well trained snipers are there? Are there many in both the opposition and the (former) government police forces? Is it beyond the realm of possibility that trained snipers could not have made it to the “other” side of the battle lines?
Again, I am not discounting the possibility, I just have no idea who fired the shots. Like many situations like these, there are some pretty dubious characters on all the various sides, including ultra-nationalist fascists who have joined the opposition and may have even coopted it.
At least four different sniper positions and video proof of security forces carrying sniper rifles.
http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26333141
If by “co-opted” you mean getting posts in the government like Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and at least five other ministerial positions totally out of proportion with their numbers, then yes, the new government has been co-opted.