Pro-West leaders may have been behind Kiev snipers: leaked audio

(TALLINN) - Estonia's top diplomat told EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in an audio leaked Wednesday about allegations that Ukraine's pro-Western leaders may have had a hand in the February 20-21 bloodbath in Kiev.

"There is now a stronger and stronger understanding (in Kiev) that behind the snipers, it was not (ousted president Viktor) Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition," Urmas Paet tells Ashton in the audio leaked on YouTube.

Dozens of protesters and around 15 police officers were killed, and parliament impeached Yanukovych the next day.

In the audio of the February 26 call, whose authenticity was confirmed by Estonia, Paet told Ashton he was informed in Kiev that "they were the same snipers killing people from both sides."

Paet, who had had talks with Ukraine's new leaders on February 25, added: "It's really disturbing that now the new coalition, they don't want to investigate what exactly happened."

She responds: "I think we do want to investigate. I mean I didn't know. I didn't pick that up. Gosh."

Paet's spokeswoman Minna-Liina Lind confirmed the audio's authenticity, telling AFP that the minister "regrets very much" that the conversation was leaked.

"We reject the claim that Paet was giving an assessment of the opposition's involvement in the violence," she added.