Ukraine Live streams: Kiev protest camp engulfed in flames

Below are a couple of live streams as the Kiev protest camp in the Ukraine is engulfed in flames.

The short description of what is going on is the government wants to stick with Putin and Russia because he doesn’t care about their corruption while the people want to join the EU so they can begin to prosper like their Polish neighbors.

Today, 9 people are confirmed dead in these protests:


Here’s a second livestream that doesn’t have any sound:

This is a report from a short while ago by Fox News’ Greg Palkot on the events of today:

If you want to know the history of these protests in more detail, this is something Mary Katherine Ham wrote a couple of weeks ago that help explain the events of today:

What sparked protests?

There were actually two sparking events.

1) Protest movement started back in November when the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, decided not to sign an association agreement with the EU, which had been planned for for many, many years. The Ukrainian people, at least half of them, got understandably extremely angry because they had seen all the things that their Polish friends have next door. They see, they came from the same place 25 years ago and they have the EU and Ukraine doesn’t, and they see how much better off they are. They took to the streets in November and it was generally a very peaceful sort of thing.

2) The second spark, the one that started the violence, was Jan. 16. In a show-of-hands-only, illegal, unrecorded vote in Parliament, which is called the Verkhovna Rada, the ruling party, which is called the party of Regions (its base of power is in the East, the more Russian-leaning part of Ukraine), pushed through a series of laws that were basically targeted at ending the protests. For instance, you’re not allowed to wear helmets; you’re not allowed to wear masks; If you drive in a line of five cars or more you can have your license taken away and your car impounded for up to two years. Ridiculously large jail terms were on offer for anything and everything. They passed a foreign agents law very similar to the one Russia passed last year, forcing everyone to register. There were additional restrictions on media. That blatant restriction of their freedoms is the thing that really sparked the violence that started a little over a week ago.

What was the reason for Yanukovych’s rejection of the EU deal? Is this just another story of a former Russian satellite cozying up to Putin?

There are a lot of factors, but at the end of the day, they have in fact chosen to go with the Russian offer to buy $15 billion of Ukrainian credits. The Ukrainian economy is in a really, really, terrible state and they need that money to stay afloat. They could have an equal amount of money from the IMF, but [Russian money is] easier and it doesn’t come with any of the restrictions that Western money does. The West wants you to do these reforms and end corruption. The administration now, corruption is what makes them tick. They’re in it to get rich and going with Putin means they don’t have to give it all up. I personally think it’s very short sighted. but they’re doing whatever works for them.

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