This is a pure propaganda piece that shows nothing other than some skill in video editing and constructing a sound track.

Think, people, think.

Do you want to spread this message in your countries? This summer when there is an Occupy or 99% demonstration in your country, do you want young men in helmets and masks carrying baseball bats and molotov cocktails to take charge of it? Will you carry a pistol with you at the demonstration to shoot police officers?

If not, then do not distribute this video.

Nothing good comes from the kind of violence that these idiots in Kyiv have started. They sit there at the Maidan with a 24 hour diet of patriotic songs and exhortations to valor and courage. If you wanted to set up a camp to train suicide bombers, this is exactly the kind of propaganda barrage that you would use. These people are brainwashed zombies and they are trying to use YOU to infect everyone else in preparation for the REAL zombie apocalypse.

This is no joke. Just say no to mindless propaganda and learn to THINK FOR YOURSELF. It wouldn't hurt to read some history and learn how much can be achieved by tireless negotiation and compromise to build a common ground and a political party. The Hitler style of party building never ends well.

And again this is extremely one-sided. Propagandistic even. And it makes it to the top of HN. Again. "THE POLICE IS READY TO SHOOT". But she won't say that it's with rubber slugs or that the protesters are throwing molotovs and shooting fireworks (which can deal nasty damage). Rocks are implied, I think.

I tried to really dig into the affair, but it's too complicated with both sides corrupt (like it typically happens in the former USSR), Putin blaming EU for everything while seeding billions to the Ukrainian government, non-transparent government-opposition talks, news sites hunting for sensations... It feels like it's impossible to make an objective (or close to it) idea about the whole situation. And this video isn't helping one bit.

As much as I hate the current Ukrainian government, I'm not sure they have anything better. Pretty horrible situation.

I can't believe this kind of submission manages to work on HN. This is pure clickbait devoid of any content. Nothing to spark a debate or "gratify one's intellectual curiosity", to cite the guidelines.

It's just "Click here if you want the good guys (us) to win!", and people are clicking. Amazing. And people are wondering why long-form journalism is dying.

Ah, political propaganda from the rebels.

The problem with videos like this is that they provide no context. It doesn't tell you a damn thing about what's going on. It's a video of a pretty girl shot with a DSLR with a shallow depth of field. Is this even shot in the Ukraine? No idea. Could be a studio pretty much anywhere.

I don't know what's going on in Kiev. This wiki article is all I could find that is well cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_up,_Ukraine!

This account is from the events in Kiev of January 22 and 23, but I recommend looking at it as a fairly objective look at how things look on the ground, as opposed to the sensationalism: http://zyalt.livejournal.com/984735.html

Obviously things have escalated now with many deaths, but these narratives of government thugs vs. brave people, or police vs. right wing elements, grow tiresome. This is not like Syria, or Occupy. It is a significant, representative portion of the population demonstrating against the government. Plenty of propaganda from both sides, though one should remember that the Ukrainian (and Russian) governments have much more experience with that than the opposition.

I don't know. I haven't heard one compelling reason why Ukraine would be a dictatorship. Instead I get emotional videos and clips of what's probably pretty isolated police brutality. Enlighten me please.

But how did this president became elected? The girl in the video speaks about dictatorship. But is it one? It bugs me, that we do not hear the voices of those in support of the current government. We always get to see the Maidan and maybe some other confined protests in other cities. In the media, it looks like the whole country is uprising. But that can't be the whole truth. If the government has no support at all, it would not still be in power.

The media is full of propaganda and one-sided stories. I like to see more coverage of how people think aside those confined protest areas!

I will share this with my network. Not just for Ukraine, but for the rest of Eastern Europe like Bulgaria who suffers the same deep corruption in their governments.

I hope she won't be arrested. She's very brave.

Random related anecdote: I saw a couple people walking down the street in SF tonight with a banner that read "Stop the killing in Ukraine".

Capitalizing on a tragic situation using a hot girl with a cute accent to get pageviews and subscribers, now that's original, that blogger is genius!

Some observe - correctly - that this is a proxy battle between the US and the USSR^wRussia. Given that choice, I'd be turning out with the anti-Russian crowd.

I'm kindda baffled by some of the comments here. The same place where NSA spying is readily condemned, people seem to be oblivious to all the ways in which manipulation works. Generations of exercising democracy tend to make young people blind to all the ways in which it can be detoured, it seems.

There's no question that this video is propagandistic in nature. Both sides release propaganda materials. The only reason you don't see the other ones is that they're in Russian and therefore of little interest in the Western media. We should definitely think the video as little more than another attempt at manipulation, but a lot of skepticism of another kind is unwarranted.

> Do you want to spread this message in your countries? This summer when there is an Occupy or 99% demonstration in your country, do you want young men in helmets and mass carrying baseball bats and molotov cocktails to take charge of it? Will you carry a pistol with you at the demonstration to shoot police officers?

It's easy to describe the occupants of the Maidan in these terms:

> They sit there at the Maidan with a 24 hour diet of patriotic songs and exhortations to valor and courage. If you wanted to set up a camp to train suicide bombers, this is exactly the kind of propaganda barrage that you would use. These people are brainwashed zombies and they are trying to use YOU to infect everyone else in preparation for the REAL zombie apocalypse.

On the other hand, quickly conducting a poll among them would probably let you find quite a few who are equally disgusted by how the "Occupy" movement turned out. Ukraine isn't exactly a democratic country; people get arrested and beaten just for standing in the wrong place, and they are genuinely outraged that peaceful protest has led them to nothing but leg pain.

I wouldn't want yong men in helmets carrying baseball bats and Molotov cocktails down my street, either. That being said, if you stroll around at an Occupy demonstration, you're probably bound to find more people frustrated that they're living in their cars than car owners in Ukraine. It's a place where, if you get pepper-sprayed by the police, you don't end up giving horrible testimonies in the media while the policeman gets a modest disciplinary sanction. You get beaten and tortured, Western media gives you a pat on the back, the policeman gets a promotion. How exactly do you expect people to deal with this non-violently?

> "THE POLICE IS READY TO SHOOT". But she won't say that it's with rubber slugs or that the protesters are throwing molotovs and shooting fireworks (which can deal nasty damage). Rocks are implied, I think.

You also fail to mention the tear gas and the grenades. More than half of last night's dead are civilians. Unless they're really fucking confused and throwing rocks at each other (which, given their steady resistance, they probably aren't), the police is dealing some fairly nasty damage, too.

> But how did this president became elected? The girl in the video speaks about dictatorship. But is it one? It bugs me, that we do not hear the voices of those in support of the current government. We always get to see the Maidan and maybe some other confined protests in other cities. In the media, it looks like the whole country is uprising. But that can't be the whole truth. If the government has no support at all, it would not still be in power.

This is simply not the way it works. Yes, it's the way it works in the US, in Germany, in UK, in Iceland -- countries that have a democratic tradition of hundreds of years or even more.

Given enough interest and control, people win elections by rigging and stay in power by tight group binding. If the Prime Minister, the President, and the Ministers of Internal Affair and Defense are on good terms, how exactly do you think relinquishing power happens? People sit around in a circle and think hm, maybe we should step down?

I'm not Ukranian, but I born on Ukraine and live there 16 years. We leave Ukraine at 1996. I'm watching on Ukraine because my school friends live there and I'm care for them.

Here's my opinion - there are tons video's how truck move in police. How footballs fanatics throw molotov to cops. Now they shoot from guns. This is not "only way" - this is just another one opposition politics game who want grab the power.

The sad fact is that while Russia keeps making active steps, EU only gets "concerned", but nothing more...

It is time for EU to do some real actions (not sanctions...). They should propose some real alternative options, even for Yanukovich - maybe a full EU membership or something similar, bit more than just Association Agreement.

Not allowed to see videos here.

The article writer could at least describe the situation after the video player...

What is it about?

Cheers!

And why would this not be propaganda of the West? I am deeply touched by the events in Ukraine and wish it stops. But do we know the complete story? I am neither Pro Russia nor Pro West.

Live video stream from Kiev maidan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_LFrMcoEm4#t=1309546

Corrupt thuggish government vs. violent nationalistic right-wingers. Whoever wins the Ukrainians lose.

Please, the Ukrainian rebels are pretty much controlled by the US, who are using fascist elements to increase the level of violence. Molotov cocktails and fireworks aren't exactly 'non-violent'. The police response has been quite measured I think...

Before blindingly believing what the media tell us about Ukraine protests, a quick Google search about the involvement of the far right in these protests should make you weary of acting in a hurry.

countries who in edge of joining e.u. why these things happen?

Lets all forget about the US trying to manipulate the outcome of these riots, already deciding who will be in power.

The only reason the US and by proxy, the EU cares about the Ukraine is so they can put another load of Patriot Missiles there; to protect Europe from Iran and North Korea of course, it has nothing to do with gaining a strategic advantage over Russia.

The cold war never ended.

Damn, she's pretty hot although the accent kind of kills my boner. I wonder though would I have clicked 'Play' on the video without the screenshot of the pretty Ukrainian blonde girl, say in the place of a Ukrainian male partisan of the same age? Was her message more persuasive through her voice and feminine presentation?

The fact that my Ghostery plugin had registered 16 trackers (including Buzzfeed.com) on thoughtcatalog.com (a "experimental" media group based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, not NYC, not Brooklyn but Williamsburg, Brooklyn). Brief browse through their headlines runs the gamut of my typical FB newsfeed a la Buzzfeed about threesome sex, expensive college education, relationship fidelity and women's body image that exploit the insecure and the well-meaning.

The copy reads like the typical HuffPo copy on the Sochi Olympics (the current "hot-button" issue on "homosexual propaganda laws" but no coverage on Chechnya and Russian oppression on the Norther Caucus where we are "partners against Terrorism" now) /China-Tibet issue (where we celebrate the "peaceful and oppressed" Tibetans" but not the similarly oppressed Muslims in Xinjian)/Arab Spring (where we celebrate the initial "Spring of Democracy" and now remain mum on the chaos that ensues in Libya/Egypt/Syria).

Brave New World got it right. Our media has become the soma and reality MTV to validate our own prejudices and tug at our indignation and emotions.