A call for a truce Wednesday ended Thursday as violence continued between anti-government protesters and police in the Ukraine, with reports stating that about 67 people have been killed.
The Associated Press reports that the body count hasn't been independently confirmed, but at least 21 bodies in Kiev were witnessed by reporters. The death toll comes from the protesters top medic, Dr. Oleh Musiy.
A truce was called for late on Wednesday, but protesters did not feel that it was genuine, worried that instead it was merely a trick.
Protesters are doing what they can against police forces that have employed snipers, by using makeshift shields and firebombs. Some protesters were able to capture police, with about 67 seen being taken away from the fight.
As the violence continues to escalate in the Ukraine over President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to resign from office, Russian officials criticized the U.S. threat of enacting sanctions unless the country ends the fighting. According to The New York Times, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov compared the idea of sanctions from Western countries to blackmail.
"How can you expect that your services will be in demand when the parallel threat of sanctions makes everything very similar to blackmail?"
Russia has long taken the side of the Ukraine government and called the protesters as nothing more than extremists on par with the Nazis.
image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
