Kiev is a warzone now.

[Clueless Morgan]

This is all happening because Yanukovych decided not to sign a trade deal with the EU?

A simplistic way to put it, but that was the start of it.

The protests hit a flash point when anti-protest laws with disproportionate (ie murder had a lesser sentence) jail time were enacted.

Although the government backed down and voted to retract those laws, Yanukovich became suddenly ill and refused to sign the legislation, effectively keeping the inflammatory laws in place.

Further reports of judicial malfeasance where pro-government supporters were overwhelmingly let off with lesser punishments while anti-government protestors continued to be tried to the fullest extant of the law made it even worse.

Finally, the attempted murder and crucification of a well known protestor amplified an already explosive situation.

This is now a battle between pro-Russia and anti-Russia ideologies.

Blood has been spilled - now we're seeing the steps towards Civil War.

Thanks for the explanation; I googled and read like 6 articles but none of them summarized where the issues began beyond basically what I said above.