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Caught up in Kyiv's violence

Interview: André Leslie, Samantha EarlyFebruary 21, 2014

As protesters and security forces clashed in Ukraine's Independence Square, DW reporter Mareike Aden found herself in the crossfire. During the past three months of protests on the square, the Hotel Ukraine, where she was based, was considered a neutral zone.

https://p.dw.com/p/1BDUC

On Thursday, the high-rise was targeted by snipers and became a makeshift emergency room and morgue.

"There were already over a dozen dead bodies lying there where the reception had been, and people were operated on there, where just the evening before we had been sitting having a cup of tea after a long workday," Aden told DW's WorldLink in an interview.

The surge in violence follows three months of largely peaceful protests. Pro-European demonstrators took to the square in November after Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych rejected a wide-ranging deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.