Leaked Call Suggests Kiev Snipers Were Paid by the Opposition Movement

The Estonian government has confirmed the authenticity of a phone call leaked on Wednesday in which two high-level politicians discuss the possibility that snipers who killed both policemen and protestors in Kiev were hired by Ukraine's opposition movement, and not Viktor Yanukovych's government.

In the hacked conversation from February 26, Urmas Paet, Estonia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, discusses with Catherine Ashton, the European Union Foreign Affairs chief, the allegations that shooters were provocateurs supported by Euromaidan.

Paet says during the call: "There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition.”

The minister explains that he received his information from a women called Olga, reported in Russian media as Euromaidan medic Olga Bogomolets, who helped provide care for those injured during the revolution.

"And second, what was quite disturbing, this same Olga told as well that all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides," Paet says.

The leaked call between Urmas Paet and Catherine Ashton

It remains unclear if these claims are true, but Paet confirmed the authenticity of the call today in a statement from the Estonian Foreign Ministry. "It is extremely regrettable that phone calls are being intercepted," it read. "The fact that this phone call has been leaked is not a coincidence."

"Foreign minister Paet was giving an overview of what he had heard in Kiev and expressed concern over the situation on the ground. We reject the claim that Paet was giving an assessment of the opposition's involvement in the violence," the statement continued.

No one has taken responsibility for the leak yet. But the first video uploaded to YouTube, under the name Michael Bergman, attributed it to “Officers of Security Service of Ukraine loyal to the ousted President Viktor Yanukovich.”

Initially, mostly Russian news sources reported on the leaked call, which no one has taken responsibility for yet.

Placing the responsibility for the sniper attacks, which received widespread international condemnation, on the interim government in power in Kiev, would certainly take some of the negative spotlight off the previous pro-Russian government.

It would also add to the widespread claims from Russia that elements of the opposition are of fascist extremists roving the streets of Kiev looking to attack Russians.