CLASHES BECAME WARFARE AGAINST PEOPLE’S SELF-DEFENSE IN DOWNTOWN KYIV – ongoing updates.

This morning, Feb. 20, despite the truce announced last night, clashes were renewed on Maidan, in the center of Kyiv. It is as yet unclear who fired the first live shots, a number of varying reports circulate. According to some reports, protesters started advancing after riot police attempted to set fire to the conservatory, where the wounded were kept. Other reports say that the first shots were fired from behind enemy lines.

9:05

As yet there is no conclusive information as to who fired the first live shots. Some reports say that the first live shots were fired from the roof of the Conservatory, which was behind the law enforcement cordons. Many questions still remain as to who started killing law enforcement officers first.

Since the Conservatory lies behind police lines, it would have been extremely difficult for  protesters to take firing positions there. This gives ground to the assumption that the killing shots were a purposeful provocation by government forces.

Another report says clashes were renewed when Berkut started throwing Molotov cocktails and/or grenades at the Conservatory. As protesters moved to put out the fires, snipers started shooting – at first, from the police lines, then from behind them.

9:08 Retweet of Batkivshchyna
Vlad Sodel @sodel_vlad
Maidan has started an attack. Self-defense is moving up Instytutska Street near the Zhovtnevyy Palace, Berkut is retreating, speakers from the Maidan stage are appealing to consolidate.

9:30

A piston rifle, which had been fired, was shown from the Maidan stage. All men are summoned to Verkhovna Rada and to the barricades. Ours are already with firearms, they repelled the forces from Maidan. Speakers and performers are leaving the stage, the military are now directing the process.

9:31

9:38

9:51

Internal troops at Hrushevskiy Street are ready to surrender, waiting for their seniors. This was announced from the stage.

9:58

TV-channel Inter has started to broadcast truth live. It’s symptomatic. Combat operations are being guided from the stage. The dances are over. It seems like a SpilnoTV operator has been shot.

10:03  A sniper has been captured

The operating room is in Oleksandrivskyy Roman Catholic Church. Zhovtnevyy Palace was set free. All the priests are calling for a prayer. Finally, the competent military clearly with experience are engaged in directing the process from the stage.

10:10

Berkut and internal troops are leaving Hrushevskiy Street en masse and heading to the Cabinet of Ministers. A line of buses are driving out one by one through the checkpoint at Kriposniy Lane. Two armored personnel carriers have left. Internal troops soliers are walking towards Arsenalna subway station in ranks. “Titushkas” still stay in Mariinskyy Park – forming groups – putting identification ribbons on – accumulating near the park’s fence
They are already running!!!! Mislaid Berkut members are behind them…
**
10-00 Employees of the Cabinet of Ministers are running from the building at Hryshevskiy Street. They’ve been ordered to leave the building.
https://www.facebook.com/arsen.avakov.1/posts/593289470761163?stream_ref=1

10:13 – Locking in the perimeter. Nobody launches an attack. Competently and correctly.

10:14 – Battle squads of “titushkas” are at Besarabka. Men have to hold the perimeter from the side of Besarabka.

10:19 – Information: officers have scattered. Information from the captives. there is a “trophy” colonel. Our scouts have captured several “titushkas” with Kalashnikovs. There is a battle grenade near the stela. Somebody is sent to defuse it.

10.28

#‎ЄвроМайдан‬  An employee of housing and communal services asks to inform that boxes with weapons are being unloaded in Pechersk district and distributed among the people in uniform!!

10:38 Shooting behind the Hotel Ukraina

10:41 Reliable information – the situation is provoked by officials. Berkut and “titushkas” are in Mariyinskyy Park. According to the announcement from the stage, they entice our side.

A trap is set at Instytutska Street, from the stage they ask everyone to be very careful and not to go there. To return to the barricade at Instytutska Street and not go beyond it. Snipers are shooting people there, picking them off as they emerge.

10:45

We consolidate the barricades, do not go outside the perimeter, traps are being organized beyond it.

News from regional EuroMaidans:

– almost everything was captured in three oblast centers of Halychyna: all oblast administrations, directions of the MIA and SBU, courts.
– the offices of the CPU [Communist Party] and PR [Party of Regionals] parties are set on fire.
– a Berkut unit has been captured in Rivne, an Internal troops unit, in Lviv.
– in the West only Zakarpattia and Bukovyna keep silence.
– Internal troops and Berkut have been blocked in Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lutsk. They burst out in Odesa and Ivano-Frankivsk.
– in the East – spontaneous meetings supporting Maidan (Kharkiv, Zaporizzhia, Odesa…)
– in the Centre – traffic police block exits from small towns (like Uman, for example)
– this morning headquarters for dispatching people to Kyiv are being organized in the Centre.

Today from 10 am many oblast administrations are going to be captured – like in Lutsk, for example. Also in the morning – students’ strike in Chernivtsi and Uzhgorod. Poltava citizens are being summoned for the common strike.

People are being shot outside the barricades of Maidan. Discipline and concentration/focussed awareness are called on anywhere near Maidan.

10:52

An interception from the Berkut portable radio transmitter: heavy machinery will be brought to Verkhovna Rada.

Continued here: Morning Events, Continued.