East vs West -- What's behind Ukraine's political crisis?

 Young and old, they have braved the freezing cold for weeks to voice their discontent. Using snow, wood, metal, and tires, thousands of protesters have barricaded themselves into a makeshift tent city, paralyzing central Kyiv and refusing to leave until their demands are met.

Undeterred by the Ukrainian winter chill, the demonstrators chant day and night, sometimes to the drumbeat of sticks on corrugated iron, and take to the stage to give speeches, demanding the government's ouster and new elections.

For the past few weeks, billowing smoke, large fires, burnt-out tires and cars as well as smashed windows of public buildings have become familiar scenes in the snowy city as protests have plunged Ukraine, an eastern European country of 45 million people, into a deep political crisis.

Some of the images beamed around the world have been particularly dramatic -- protesters knocking down a giant statue of the Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin and hacking it with hammers to loud cheers, explosions reminiscent of a war zone echoing around downtown Kyiv, fierce clashes and abuse. One protester, naked aside from his shoes, was seen being kicked and forced onto a police bus.

The battlefield is central Kyiv, the power base of an opposition that is demanding change in the former Soviet Union state. The lines have been drawn. 

Batons have been raised on both sides -- between the protesters armed with petrol bombs and stones and shielded riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets -- sometimes resulting in deadly crashes.

But despite a crackdown, demonstrators' morale is high with no sign of their labyrinth of tents, railings, and metal barrels that have taken up Kyiv's central arteries being dismantled just yet.

It has been two months since the first rattled demonstrators took to the streets, underscoring tensions in a country split between Europe and Russia. But Ukraine's political unrest seems to be worsening by the day -- drawing concern from its neighbors, Western European states and Washington.

Here are some key questions about Ukraine's political unrest.