I mean i'd be running for the fucking hills in their situation. What's making these guys tick? They act like they are on a damn suicide mission.

If you have a short attention span, the part that riled me up starts at about 9:30 into the video and lasts pretty much until the end.

If I was in there situation I'd be inclined to stay at home and have a cooked breakfast, and prepare for the next election.

What comes to mind is poor gullible idiots. I feel sorry for the police who were put in an impossible situation, and I feel sorry for the majority of the protesters who have allowed themselves to be talked into this madness. A damned bloody horlicks.

You'd be making a fatal mistake, Octavious.

No one outside of the English-speaking world could approve of the dramatic health consequences "cooking" a breakfast could have.

You suggest I eat raw bacon?

Typical European madness!

I feel that there was nothing worth dying for, or killing for in the Ukrainian uprising.

I think the pragmatic lesson to be learned is not to stop. If all the protesters had run at the snipers nest instead of hiding around, there would probably have been less killed and they would have got hold of their executor. Also large tin shields provide excellent targets for shooters.

I highly suspect the shooter was personally motivated rather than following orders. Orders do not explain why he would continue shooting at huddled protestors one after the another. I suspect he was enjoying it.

But yeah, let's not forget that all the protestors wanted to be there, and thought their freedom was worth their lives. Most Ukrainians like you or me would have either left the country years ago or avoided the violence as much as they can. Still a sickening video though.

There's a part where a guy brings a tin shield for his friend hiding behind a tree, and the guy takes the shield, and then is shot through it and killed. I bet his "friend" felt like shit for that. I'm pretty sure he got killed after that.

Do we know what the percentage of shots -> deaths was? I think most of those are kills from the looks of it.

Definitly not all hit were killed, not even most but enough. Three or four of the guys are definite KIA, the rest is at least twitching.

"If all the protesters had run at the snipers nest instead of hiding around, there would probably have been less killed and they would have got hold of their executor."

Just no. There are several shooters in action in that video. Distance, rate of fire, accuracy and the displayed power of the impacts suggest that they are using at least assault rifles (several variants of those can be seen in other footage aswell). Rushing several shooters armed with automatic weapons across an open field when you have medival style weaponry and the best protection you have can't stop a single shot of the fired munition would be plain and simple mass suicide.

What amazes me is that they hold their position at all.

I am still puzzeled by their motivation and can't decide to admire them or declare them insane. Or maybe a little bit of both? And seeing what came of it... would they do that again?

Well, they won. They overthrew democracy and their country hasn't slipped into total ruin yet. Pretty much the best they could hope for. Damned if I know what there is to admire about it though.

They held their position because the security forces are for the most part loyal Ukrainians who signed up to protect and serve their countrymen. As such, even though the protesters carried a variety of guns and assorted weapons, and even though several of their friends and fellow officers had been quite hideously beaten, they did not wish to shoot to kill. Some clearly did, but one wonders how many of them were cold heartless bastards and how many were scared kids who panicked.

@Oct
They "overthrew democracy"?
Winning a popular vote and doing whatever you like does not a democratic leader make..

Winning the election does a democratic leader make. One of the delights of the system is its simplicity. What you do after that merely determins how good a leader you are.

Alas, democracy is more than voting. As you yourself recently remarked on this forum, even the most cruel dictatorships like North Korea hold elections of some sort. That does not make the country a democracy, nor does it justify its leadership's politics. On the scale between free democracies like the United Kingdom and Holland and fake democracies like North Korea, I would agree with you that Ukraine was way to the side of the first kind, but I definitely don't think the protestors in Ukraine deserve the "overthrowers of democracy" stigma.

"Rushing several shooters armed with automatic weapons across an open field"

Fuck no. Split into three groups, find a way round. Fuck sitting behind a wall getting picked off like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt_evsCj0ck in the midst of it...

One of the cornerstones of democracy is the willful participation of the people. Once a group of people establish the principle that elected officials can be removed by violence that cornerstone is significantly weakened. Even if it were possible to hold free and fair elections in the near future (which clearly it isn't) the result of that election will be a shadow of what would have been possible without the violence.

Basically i would i say that we can agree on that Octavius. But what about the right to resist opression suffered by a goverment that is clearly corrupt (and there can be no doubt at all that Yanukovich et al were that and more) and not acting in the best interest of the people that elected them. Elected them based on a constitution that was changed later and on promises that were not only not kept but turned into something looking like a well performed 180.

I think when the first couple of protestors are killed (especially shot at) the desire for the protestors to accept negotiations plummets, and rightfully so.

I am in no way condoning violence enacted by anyone. I have seen my fair share of that close up and how the aftermath looks like to rather never see that again.
But i do strongly support the right to protest. Where does one thing end and the other start? What about violence against property (i.e. occupation of buildings)? How should the goverment react to that? How hard? If they abuse power in the process or if it is clear that torture awaits those arrested, are the protesters allowed to use force to escape and resist the arrest? To what extent?

Those are questions circeling in my mind if i see a video like that.

I think noone in his right mind can sit through the whole 41 minutes of this video without have some level of emotional response to it.
Those i wanted to hear but there is little response like that until now. Why is that?

Putins new 'favourites' bookmark.
But as SYnapse pointed out, the asshole sniper was clearly enjoying it, and to think he will never be brought to justice, it's really sickening.