Missing Ukrainian activist emerges bloody, beaten (VIDEO)
Anti-government protesters warm themselves at a fire near a barricade early morning in Kyiv on January 31, 2014.
Activist Dmytro Bulatov went missing around the time that a few other prominent activists were apparently kidnapped during the Ukraine protests.
Bulatov proved more fortunate than one of the activists who was found dead in a forest, but he emerged bruised and bloody, with an account of being tortured and hung up by his wrists.
"My hands… they crucified me, nailed me, cut my ear off, cut my face," Bulatov told Channel 5 television on Friday. "Thank God I am alive."
"I can't see well now, because I sat in darkness the whole time," he said, through a swollen face and bruised body, still covered in blood.
Bulatov is a member of the activist Avtomaidan group, which helped ferry protesters and supplies during the ongoing protests in Kyiv.
The Kyiv Post said, "He was found in a village house after someone opened the door on which he was pounding."
Later on Friday, a warrant was reportedly issued for Bulatov's arrest:
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This report from euronews shows Bulatov's condition:
The situation in Ukraine remained tense on Friday, with the army calling on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to take "urgent steps" to ease the crisis.
"The servicemen and employees of the armed forces called unacceptable the seizure of state offices, preventing representatives of state and local authorities from fulfilling their duties," the army's statement read.
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Yanukovych's office announced that the president was on sick leave as of Thursday, with no indication of when he would return to work.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to meet with top opposition leaders Vitali Klitschko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk on the sidelines of a conference in Munich this weekend.
Despite Yanukovych's government offering major concessions (including the prime minister and cabinet's resignation, repealing deeply unpopular anti-protest measures, and offering to release detained protesters), protesters in Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine have dug in.
Yanukovych signed the amnesty bill into law on Friday, though it's unlikely to end the protests. Many have rejected the offer because of the condition that requires protesters to leave occupied buildings and streets.
The months-long protests turned violent in January, leading to the deaths of at least six people.
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