Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

West Has Blood on Its Hands in Ukraine

Western leaders have repeatedly blown chances to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine. Now it may be too late.

February 19, 2014 at 4:22 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Hatred is running deeper on the streets of Kiev. Photographer: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images

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Kiev, a typically quiet city of 2.8 million, saw more deaths last night than in any single day since World War II. At least 25 people were killed, and hundreds were gravely injured, many losing eyes or limbs, in what may be the beginning of full-blown civil war on the eastern border of the European Union.

It is easy to blame Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, as Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt did in a tweet: "We must be clear: Ultimate responsibility for deaths and violence is with President Yanukovych. He has blood on his hands." Because police officers died of gunshot wounds, it is equally easy to accuse radical protesters, as the Russian Foreign Ministry did in this statement: "Blood was spilled in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities last night as a result of criminal activity by radical opposition forces."