Channel 4 : British EU chief hears Ukraine shooting claim in bugged call

In a leaked phone call, believed to be between EU foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton and Estonia's foreign minister Urmas Paet, it is claimed Ukraine protesters were shot on the orders of their own leaders.

In the conversation the speakers discuss a suspicion that snipers who shot protesters in Kiev's Independence Square, at the height of the Maidan protests, had been hired by opposition leaders, not the Ukrainian government of ousted President Yanukovych.

"There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers
 it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition."
 Urmas Paet

In the recording, the male voice says he has been told of evidence suggesting that one group was responsible for shooting both riot police and protesters alike, and that there is a 'stronger and stronger understanding' that one of the Maidan leaders organised the shootings.

"And it's really disturbing that now the new coalition [government], they don't want to investigate what exactly happened, so that there is now a stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition."

Baroness Ashton apparently responds: "I think they do want to investigate, and I didn't know... pick that up - gosh." Mr Paet says the evidence "discredits from the very beginning" Ukraine's new leadership.

Estonia Foreign Minister Urmas Paet confirms leaked call is authentic