SOCHI, Russia — A gutsy Ukrainian skier chose her people over Olympic glory  Thursday and pulled out of the Sochi games in protest.

Bodgana Matsotska said she could not compete while her countrymen were being  killed and is heading to Kiev to join the rebels fighting to overthrow President Victor  Yanukovych.

“I don’t want to participate when in my country people die,” Matsotska told  The Associated Press.

Between 70 and 100 protesters in Kiev were reportedly killed in the worst  violence since Ukraine split from the old Soviet Union and hundreds more were  injured in clashes with security forces loyal to President Viktor  Yanukovych.

Yanukovych insisted his men weren’t firing live rounds at the people.

But footage shown on Ukrainian television of Orthodox priests blessing the  bodies of fallen rebels painted their president a liar — and angered the  world.  (link)

The 24-year-old skier was supposed to compete in the slalom on Friday, her  third and best event at the Sochi games. (more…)

Things have gone from bad to worse….  Some amazing earlier pictures and recap of the events HERE

UKRAINE – A short-lived truce crumbled Thursday as gunfire erupted at Independence Square, the center of anti-government protests and an increasingly violent crisis that threatens catastrophe for this divided nation.

The head of the protesters’ medical service said 100 people died and 500 were injured in clashes on Thursday, just hours after the government declared a truce in fighting that had shocked world leaders with the deaths of 28 people two days before.

The Ukrainian government has not released its own casualty figures, but Interior Minister Vitali Zakharchenko said 25 police officers had been wounded and an unspecified number of them had died. Some others had been taken hostage, he said. (more…)

The Red Line comment is at 1:25

Photo by @Stcrow of @nytimes of Pres Obama making remarks about Ukraine during photo op with Mexican Pres Pena Nieto. pic.twitter.com/XftQFDDiDQ

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 19, 2014

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