ZURAB KURTSIKIDZE/EPA
Protesters clash with riot police during an anti-government protest in downtown Kiev.
KIEV, Ukraine – Three people have died in clashes between protesters and police in the Ukrainian capital Wednesday, according to medics on the site, in a development that will likely escalate Ukraine’s two month-long political crisis.
An Associated Press reporter saw medics declare three people dead near the barricades where police and protesters have confronted each other for three days. Police earlier reported one death, but it was unclear whether that was a separate victim.
GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS
Three were killed the unrest engulfing the Ukrainian capital, inflaming protesters who confronted police shouting ‘Murderers’ and ‘Glory to Ukraine!’.
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Oleh Bondar, a medic, said the men died of bullet wounds, but would not specify whether they were rubber or real bullets.
VASILY FEDOSENKO/REUTERS
A pro-European protester holds a Molotov cocktail during clashes with riot police. Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said the protests had brought ‘terrorists’ to the streets and warned that all ‘criminal actions’ would be punished.
Police began chasing protesters away and dismantling barricades near a government district in Kiev on Wednesday morning
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Ukraine’s political crisis reached a new phase last week after President Viktor Yanukovych pushed through harsh anti-protest legislation. That prompted street battles at a cordon of riot police and buses near the Ukrainian parliament. Protesters threw rocks and fire bombs and police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The clashes injured hundreds of protesters and police, but the deaths were likely to stoke anger and cause more people to join the protests and clashes.
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