CNN’s Tom Foreman is with the Washington Post’s Max Fisher to explain just how important the protests in Ukraine are.
Ukraine about the size of Texas with about 45 million people.
Western half — most people speak Ukranian.
Eastern half — most people speak Russian.
Citizens are upset about a government deal with Russia, instead of a deal with the European Union.
Ukraine has a large agricultural market and is a large trading partner with Russia. Ukraine was the second largest economy in the Soviet Union era, but citizens struggled economically after the Soviet dissolution. Ukraine holds the world record for inflation in one calendar year in 1993 after monetary policies involving subsidization of state-run industries and agriculture caused hyperinflation.
Ukraine is considered to be in a demographic crisis due to a death rate that is higher than the birth rate. The current Ukrainian birth rate is 11 births/1,000 population, and the death rate is 16.3 deaths/1,000 population
Since 1992, over 200,000 persons born in Ukraine have emigrated to the US.
Ukraine has one of the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world with about 1.63 percent of Ukrainian adults, or about 756,300 citizens estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in 2007, up from 1.46 percent of the population in 2005, or 685,600 citizens, according to UNAIDS.
Protesters began constructing barricades out of paving stones and metal constructions after seizing new territory in Institutskaya street in Kiev on Thursday.
A Ruptly reporter was hit by a sniper’s bullet while covering the outbreak of clashes in Kiev’s Maidan Square on Thursday.
WARNING: Man treated with CPR. Wounded protesters received medical assistance outside Hotel Ukraine on Maidan Square on Thursday morning, while troops of their comrades marched away captured and disarmed police officers.
DRONE VIEW: Riot police and armed protesters on Kiev’s Maidan square held an uneasy truce on Thursday after an agreement was forged late on Wednesday between President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders.
AP photographers capture stunning images of the clashes between anti-government protestors and police in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.
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