Sorry, I just had to respond to this ridiculous assertion..your "peaceful protestors" were building and firing slingshots, molotov cocktails and even DIY rocket launchers - they were even fawned upon and idolized by the Western press for this. You do that in any nation and you will get a beating from the police. You do that in the US and you will be rapidly sent to the after-life.

Hell, several people even made a giant catapult on-site (props given for engineering knowledge though). What surprised me at that time watching is that the Ukrainian police were so tolerant of rocks falling on them. American police would have immediately opened fire. Of-course, that tolerance didn't last long once policemen started taking casualties.

what you describe, happened much later.

initially it was just students who protested. peacefully. police beat them down. after this to maidan came adults (because it's not appropriate to brutalize children ) and started camping there. and later it escalated to what you wrote about when police (based on government orders based on russian suggestions) tried to disperse maidan camp.

you probably didn't watch it from the very beginning. I did. in ukrainian.