For the last two days tanks have burned on the streets of Kiev, government buildings have gone up in flames, and by some reports up to 90 people – including 10 policemen -- lay dead.
In the West of Ukraine rebels stormed and occupied the Prosecutor’s office in Lviv, while anti-government protesters reoccupied Kiev's central square and held over 50 police officers captive. On Thursday, Ukraine's acting interior minister Vitaly Zakharchenko authorized security forces to use combat weapons against protesters.
The biggest question is whether this rebellion against Yanukovych’s rule will escalate into civil war. As Kiev erupted in gunfire and flames and police battered up to 25,000 protesters with stun grenades and water cannons, protesters seized government buildings across opposition-minded western parts of Ukraine.
In the Ternopil region on Tuesday protesters stormed an Interior Ministry building – and government troops refused to fight, putting down their weapons and declaring that the "police is with the people," according to Ukraine's Espresso Online TV.
What’s clear is that much of the country has become ungovernable. Even the capital remains in the hands of the rebels: Yanukovych’s crack Berkut riot police were driven back in running battles in central Kiev’s Independence Square on Thursday. More, its also clear that Yanukovych has given up on talks with the opposition.
Over the previous two months, under intense pressure from the European Union and United States, Yanukovych made some significant concessions. He amnestied all detainees, scrapped a repressive anti-protest law, fired most of his government, even offered all opposition leaders top cabinet posts -- yet still the protests went on.
Storming the barricades is an act of desperation for Yanukovych, and will almost certainly spell the end of his political career. But his nervous neighbours fear that it may spell the end of Ukraine too.
While the EU and US have been scrambling to broker a compromise between Yanukovych and the opposition, Moscow has been doing exactly the opposite. The protests began in November after Yanukovych abandoned an Association Agreement with the EU and plumped for a $15 billion aid package offered by Vladimir Putin instead.
http://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-heading-civil-war-229494