Ukraine violence catches EU by surprise

Berlin and Brussels - A sudden eruption of violence in Kiev, leaving six protesters and one policeman dead, has taken EU diplomats by surprise.

The fighting broke out on Tuesday (18 February) morning when riot police confronted anti-government demonstrators as they tried to march toward the parliament building in the city centre.

The march was designed to put pressure on the parliament speaker to introduce a motion on constitutional reform into the order of the day.

The fighting escalated in several flashpoints in the government district. Over the next few hours, “at least” six protesters and one policeman were killed, the BBC reports. More than 150 demonstrators and 30 policemen were also injured and the HQ of the ruling Party of the Regions was set on fire.

Authorities issued an ultimatum threatening a mass crackdown if people did not disperse by 6pm Kiev time.

But opposition leaders called on more people to come to the main protest camp, the Maidan, while pictures on social media showed police squads carrying boxes of molotov cocktails and AK47s into the riot zone.

Andrew Wilson, an analyst for the London-based think tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), spoke to EUobserver by phone from the scene.

“There are ambulances everywhere. The metro has stopped and shops have closed early … a direct assault on the Maidan is possible, but it would be very costly for all concerned,” he said.

The events met with calls for restraint by European diplomats.

A member of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso i’s cabinet phoned the office of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych i to deliver the message.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also phoned acting Ukrainian foreign minister Leonid Kozhara, saying: "I urge the opposing groups in Ukraine to return urgently to the path of recent days and talk about a political solution."

Speaking for the EU as a whole, EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton i said in a statement: “I condemn all use of violence, including against public or party buildings … Political leaders must now assume their shared responsibility to rebuild trust.”

Underlining Western fears the situation risks creating a security emergency in the region, Nato chief Anders Fogh-Rasmussen i noted: “I am seriously concerned about the return to violence in Ukraine.”

For his part, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said Tuesday’s events came despite expectations the two sides were nearing a compromise on an interim government and on curbing Yanukovych’s constitutional powers. “Ukraine seems poised to snatch defeat from the jaws of negotiated success,” he said on Twitter.

A diplomatic source in one EU embassy in Kiev told this website that EU and US diplomats failed to grasp that the popular opposition movement does not trust Western-backed opposition MPs, such as Arseniy Yatsenyuk, to negotiate on their behalf.

"The EU was happy because it already saw the light the end of the tunnel. But it seems the people did not endorse compromises which were negotiated between discredited authorities and a corrupt and equally discredited opposition,” the contact said.

Yatsenyuk and fellow opposition MP, ex-boxer Vitaliy Klitschko, who has distanced himself from the talks, visited Berlin on Monday.

They met with Chancellor Angela Merkel i for one hour, as well as with Steinmeier and with leading MPs. Speaking in the Bundestag at the end of the meetings, they said they were grateful for the show of support by "one of the most influential politicians in the world."

But Klitschko's plea for Germany to back sanctions against regime officials remained unanswered.

Sources in the German foreign ministry say Berlin would consider sanctions only if violence keeps escalating and there is no chance of a political solution.

But for the ECFR’s Andrew Wilson, Tuesday’s events amount to Yanukovych crossing the red line.

Looking back to conclusions by EU foreign ministers last week, he noted: “The key phrase last Monday was that further measures would be considered if the situation deteriorated. Clearly it has deteriorated. If we do not regard this as deterioration, we will lose all credibility in what is already a looming disaster for European soft power.”

He said the first step should be triggering anti-money laundering laws in Austria and the UK to go after the illegitimate assets of Yanukovych allies.

With Ashton’s communique highlighting “violence … including [by protesters] against public or party buildings,” Wilson warned that “one should avoid moral equilateralism” which puts the authorities and the demonstrators on par.