It only takes one word for people on Independence Square to dash for cover: "Sniper!"
A handful of snipers have been wreaking havoc on the front lines of Kiev's urban conflict, picking off targeted individuals among the protesters with kill shots to the neck and head.
Self-defense groups on the protesters' side say at least two snipers, and possibly as many as four or five, operating from vantage points on higher ground, turned a small area on the edge of the square Thursday into a battlefield.