The protesters were local Ukrainian people, who were unarmed and did not commit acts of terrorism. They were not paid by anyone, they were simply there because they were fed up with the rampant corruption in the previous Ukrainian government. These pro-Russian groups are mostly paid mercenaries from Russia and other neighboring countries, who are trained and fully armed with heavy weaponry supplied by Russia and who rob, torture and murder innocent people and even attack residential areas with grad missiles to create nice pictures for Russian news channels, saying the Ukrainian army did it. The difference between simple protesters and these criminals is as clear as night and day.