Fighting worsens in Ukraine

Reuters:

Ukraine suffered its bloodiest day since Soviet times on Thursday with a gun battle in central Kiev as President Viktor Yanukovich faced conflicting pressures from visiting European Union ministers and his Russian paymasters.

Three hours of fierce fighting in Independence Square, which was recaptured by anti-government protesters, left the bodies of over 20 civilians strewn on the ground, a few hundred meters from where the president met the EU delegation.

The ministers, from Germany, France and Poland, shuttled through "a night of difficult negotiations" with him and the opposition, said EU officials who hoped a plan for an interim government and early elections could bring peace.

Earlier in the day, riot police were captured on video shooting from a rooftop at demonstrators in the plaza, known as the Maidan. Protesters hurled petrol bombs and paving stones to drive the security forces off a corner of the square the police had captured in battles that began two days earlier.

The health ministry said 75 people had been killed since Tuesday afternoon, which meant at least 47 died in Thursday's clashes. That was by far the worst violence since Ukraine emerged from the crumbling Soviet Union 22 years ago.

The trio of EU foreign ministers met for a marathon four hours with Yanukovich and extended their stay until Friday to put a roadmap for a political solution to opposition leaders after colleagues in Brussels imposed some targeted sanctions and threatened more if the authorities failed to restore calm.
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This would be the same Europeans who refused to join with the US in stopping this conflict to begin with?  Is Putin the hidden force behind the intransigence in the Ukraine?

When you have security forces setting up snipers to shoot protesters, it suggest the government thinks killing is the answer to their problem.

This report says the protesters have retaken territory in Kiev.