February 21, 2014. A cold, tense night in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The main stage in Maidan Square. For three months Maidan has been the epicenter of a popular rebellion against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who heads a corrupt and increasingly autocratic government. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Oleh Tyahnybok, and Vitali Klitschko, the three main leaders of the political opposition, make their way to the stage through a crowd of thousands to announce details of a deal for political reorganization and reform that they have just struck with the embattled president. Just the day before, the mounting tension inside Kyiv and throughout Ukraine had reached its brutal climax in a massacre relentlessly cheered on by the Russian media and government. Russia's Prime Minister Medvedev crudely questioned Yanukovych's manhood, declaring that he was nothing more than a 'foot rag' if he hesitated to spill protester blood. Government forces, including expert riflemen, their guns equipped with sniper sights, backed by thuggish pro-government auxiliaries, fired on demonstrators in Kyiv. Many were shot in the back. Sixty-seven were killed, 184, wounded by gunfire. Now the mood in the capital is blacker than the northern winter night. Justice for the dead and a change of regime is what people in Maidan Square demand, not political compromise with a detested and discredited national leader. As the opposition leaders mount the stage, they are met by jeers, catcalls, and booing. The crowd passes several open caskets of yesterday's victims overhead, their corpses brought to the stage accompanied by chants that Yanukovych must go. Volodymyr Parasyuk, a commander of the popular self-defense forces, a young man from Lviv in his mid-20s, grabs the microphone and gives an impassioned speech expressing the mood of the crowd. "Our kinsmen have been shot and our leaders shake hands with this killer. This is shameful. Tomorrow, by 10 o'clock, he has to be gone." Book jacket.