Three Dead After Clashes at Ukraine Parliament

Ukraine Police Say They've Arrested Grenade Thrower

The toll from yesterday’s massive clash at the Ukrainian parliament between police and ultra-nationalists continues to rise, with two more members of the national guard dying from injuries sustained in the clashes, when a protester threw a grenade at them.

This brings the toll of the incident to three killed, all security forces, and another 140 wounded, mostly troops and police.
18 protesters were arrested, including a man they said confessed to throwing the grenade, who they identified as a member of the Svoboda Party.

The demonstrations were organized by Svoboda and the Radical Party to protest a deal made to grant some autonomy to the ethnic Russian east, an effort to resolve the ongoing civil war. The far-right parties, which dominate the west of the country, oppose any concessions and similarly oppose any resolution of the war that isn’t military in nature.

As the fighting in Kiev erupts with the protesters, the eastern front is entirely quiet, with the Ukrainian military saying all signs are that the ethnic Russians are complying with the ceasefire, and there’ve been no reports of incidents in the past 24 hours.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.