Ukraine: Kiev Protester Bulatov ‘Crucified’ as Army Warns of War
On Thursday night, Dmitri Bulatov, one of the activists who has been leading the revolution in Ukraine, came stumbling out of the darkness toward the lights of a village just south of the nation’s capital, Kiev. He had been missing for a week, since the night of Jan. 22, when his fellow activists believe he had been kidnapped by thugs loyal to the ruling government. When the villagers saw him on Thursday night, he was covered in blood. His left cheek had been slashed and his left ear partly severed. “They crucified me,” he told a local television crew that soon arrived on the scene. “So there are holes in my hands now,” he said, showing what looked like puncture wounds in both palms.
The gruesome images of Bulatov, 35, soon spread through the media and social networks, further infuriating the thousands of protesters who have occupied the center of Kiev since late November. Their fury has helped turn a peaceful protest movement into an insurrection over the past two weeks, as escalating violence against the demonstrators has given the revolution martyrs to rally around. Several protesters have been killed during clashes with police, at least one from apparent gunshot wounds, and their faces have now become symbols of the uprising, plastered around the massive tent camp that has paralyzed the center of the capital.
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