Ukraine has steeped itself into civil outbreaks. Citizens have protested against the government’s refusal for European Union membership, by which the people could gain jobs and commerce. When the government sided with Russia, the people protested, and the government retaliated.
According to The Associated Press, on Friday, an opposition leader Dmytro Bulatov said he was released from abduction and was discarded in the woods near Kiev on Thursday, with his face bloodied and body pierced and beaten. Bulatov said he was crucified and interrogated about the opposition’s plans.
Other leaders such as Igor Lutsenko and Yuri Verbitsky were also kidnapped and beaten. According to The Associated Press, Verbitsky was found dead.
The European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was “appalled by the obvious signs of prolonged torture and cruel treatment” of Bulatov and condemned the death of Verbitsky.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich left the government on sick leave. Yet on Friday, the president issued an amnesty statement to release the captured hostages. Still, the protests ensued, and finally the president repealed an anti-protesting law and even accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
According to Reuters, the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the military is not to get involved, although six people have been killed and hundreds more have been injured between demonstrators and police.
On the Defense Ministry news website, a retired general named Serhiy Rybak was quoted for his comment on civil wars. “No political ambition is worth a drop of human blood,” he said.
In November, Yanukovich sealed a deal with Russia to receive a $15 billion loan instead of accepting a trade deal with the European Union. That decision helped sparked this revolution in Ukraine.
“I would like to tell you that we will not be frightened,” said Bulatov. “We have no intention to stop.”
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
