Ukraine Truce Ends Already;100 Dead, Kiev is Burning; Civil Uprising or Civil War?

Shortly after I wrote Spotlight on Ukraine: Riots in Kiev, EU Weighs Sanctions, Emergency Meetings; Fear of Default Contagion Spreads, the government negotiated a truce with protesters.

The truce lasted all of a few hours. The Financial Times reports Kiev truce ends in violence and gunfire.

Deadly clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police erupted again in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday, despite a truce announced hours earlier, with 70 demonstrators dead from gunshot wounds.

Each side accused the other of firing live ammunition, just hours after Ukrainian presidential officials and opposition political leaders claimed to have called a truce late on Wednesday.

The latest deaths take the number of people killed in Kiev since Tuesday to nearly 100, with hundreds more injured.

The escalating street battles cast doubt on the prospect of a peaceful resolution to pull the country away from the brink of a widening civil conflict, despite international diplomatic efforts to broker a settlement.