Ukraine May Be Inching Closer to Civil War

As protests grow more violent, Lviv declares its independence

“Today, we face the choice of whether we’ll be a colony of Russia or an independent state.” —Andriy Parubiy, a lawmaker in Ukraine’s Parliament, before the protest march in Kiev that resulted in at least 26 deathsPhotograph by Maxim Dondyuk

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By Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Henry Meyer, and Daryna Krasnolutska

February 21, 2014 at 12:30 AM UTC

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This article is part of the February 24, 2014 issue of businessweek.

Hours after opponents of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych called for reinforcements to join them in Kiev on Feb. 19, dozens of minibuses and cars began discharging people near the scene of the bloody clashes in which at least 26 people have died in recent days. Many bore bulky backpacks, and at least one carried a hunting rifle. “We just came in from Lviv,” a city about 325 miles west of the capital, said Volodymyr, who declined to provide any more information about himself. Asked what his plans were, he replied, “We will break Yanukovych’s spine.”

As the day ended, Yanukovych said on his website that the government and the opposition had agreed to a truce and to continue talks to stop the bloodshed. Even so, opposition to the president in the western part of the country may be a sign that Ukraine’s problems are becoming more intractable.