KIEV, UKRAINE — The violent three-day standoff between protesters and riot police here paused briefly on Tuesday, as protesters switched their focus to finding a prominent civil activist who they allege was abducted.
The activist, Ihor Lutsenko, was a widely-known blogger who had been an outspoken critic of the government and a regular presence at pro-democracy protests that have engulfed the country since late November.
See also: Someone Sent a Mysterious Mass Text to Protesters in Kiev
Lutsenko's girlfriend, Mariya Lebedeva, wrote on Facebook that he was kidnapped from a Kiev-area hospital, where he had taken another protester to be treated for an eye injury suffered during a clash with police.
At around 9:30 p.m. local time, Lutsenko posted a note on Facebook, which Lebedeva later confirmed he had written, explaining how he and a protester named Yuriy Verbytsky were kidnapped, driven outside Kiev and terrorized by 10 men.
According to Lutsenko, the men, who wore black hats and jackets and held them separately in a garage, forcefully took him and Verbytsky from the hospital while doctors looked on. His captors drove him to the forest and let him go on Tuesday, but not before he was forced to pray on his knees, which led him to believe that he might be killed.
“This last day at least three times I said ‘goodbye’ to life, but now I am OK. I crawled out of the woods, where I was brought and thrown by my captors, and am in a good mood, but without a mobile (phone) and in mediocre physical condition,” he said.
Two EuroMaidan activists missing; foul play suspected #Ukraine #kyivpost #kiev #euromaidan http://t.co/qhwn7MZEiB
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) January 21, 2014
Verbytsky's whereabouts are still unknown.
The abduction occurred in the pre-dawn hours while groups of thugs known as titushki ran amok in Kiev. Groups of them, mostly young, athletic men clad in tracksuits, beat protesters, broke windows and smashed cars. Activists and opposition members asserted that they were paid by the government to incite further violence among protesters and undermine the largely peaceful movement, accusations a top Ukrainian official denied.
Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion turned leader of opposition party UDAR, said: “This is the plan of authorities to introduce a state of emergency.”
Activists detained a dozen of the provocateurs, who then faced a makeshift public tribunal broadcast on the live streams of numerous opposition media, during which time they admitted to receiving between $20 and $30 for their services.
Meanwhile, radicalized groups of protesters continued their violent campaign against riot police near the cabinet building and Dynamo football stadium on Hrushevskoho Street just before sunrise.
Barrel fires and explosions from Molotov cocktails illuminated the scene, which has at times resembled a medieval battlefield, with some protesters donning armor and carrying shields. At least one man was seen shooting an arrow from a hastily made bow.
On Monday, protesters erected a catapult to better sling stones at police, who have used stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets against them.
Doctors at the scene told Mashable they believe that more than 1,000 people from the protesters' side have been injured in the clashes over the past three days. At least three reportedly lost eyes and one man lost his right hand as a result of the clashes. In a statement published on its website, the Interior Ministry said more than 163 police officers had been injured.
The riots on Hrushevskoho Street, two blocks from the nerve center of Euromaidan protests on Independence Square, began on Sunday, two days after President Viktor Yanukovych signed a packet of repressive laws ostensibly meant to curb the civil uprising.
I'll never get used to this scene. #kyiv #ukraine pic.twitter.com/5P1Bhbzsad
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 21, 2014
Opposition leaders labeled the passage of the laws a “constitutional coup d'etat,” while protesters called it a move toward dictatorship.
The laws severely restrict the freedom of peaceful assembly and criminalize actions used by protesters in recent weeks to force authorities into conceding to their demands. Under the laws, blocking access to public or government buildings, publishing and distributing slanderous or “extremist” materials and participating in mass demonstrations are offenses punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Early Tuesday, in a mysterious, Orwellian move, protesters near Hrushevskoho Street received text messages, seemingly sent from authorities, that told them they were breaking the new laws — just as the laws officially took effect.
“Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance,” the mass text message read.
Mobile phone operators denied involvement with the messages, stoking suspicions that the authorities were behind them.
Protesters are asking that President Yanukovych and his government resign, that snap elections for a new president be held and that all protesters detained during mass demonstration over the past two months be released.
Andriy Portnov, a Yanukovych adviser, blamed opposition leaders for the eruption of violence in the capital. Opposition leaders, he said on Tuesday, “have in fact associated themselves with the actions of the people who are doing what we see on Hrushevskoho Street today," according to Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The divisive talk and a failed attempt to meet with President Yanukovych on Tuesday to discuss an exit strategy to the current political turmoil didn’t sit well with Klitschko, the UDAR party leader, who was said to be pulling out of peace talks.
By nightfall, the mood in Kyiv and on Hrushevkoho Street had intensified. As rumors swirled that police were gearing up to go on the offensive, protesters hunkered down and stockpiled stones and Molotov cocktails.
On Tuesday, Arseniy Yatseniuk, an opposition leader from the Batkivschyna party, all but condoned the violent actions of protesters over the past three days, even hinting that it might be necessary in order to overthrow the Yanukovych government.
“People have received the right to switch from peaceful to non-peaceful protest because of the deafness of the authorities and their disregard for the people,” he said.
Weighing in from Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the situation in Kiev was on the verge of “spinning out of control,” citing protesters use of Molotov cocktails on police and the continued occupation of government buildings.
“When something like this happens within a European country, no one questions the need to curb the disorder and violence with firm measures.”
Christopher J. Miller is an editor at English-language newspaper the Kyiv Post in Ukraine.