KIEV, Dec. 24 – A series of coordinated assassination attempts targeted key activists of anti-government protests across Ukraine on Tuesday raising questions about the role of the authorities in the attacks.

The developments signal a new escalation in the standoff between the pro-European protesters and the cash-strapped government that has recently accepted a $15 billion bailout package from Russia .

Tatiana Chonovol, an investigative journalist who had exposed alleged corruption involving the family of President Viktor Yanukovych, was savagely and ferociously attacked by two unidentified assailants on the road near Kiev . She is in the intensive care in a hospital.

Dmytro Pylypytsia, an activist and an organizer of the anti-government protest in Kharkiv, was attacked and stabbed 12 times by two unidentified assailants on Tuesday.

“Dmytro is in a hospital,” Arsen Avakov, an opposition leader from the Bartkivshchyna group, wrote in his blog. “They really tried to kill him. They tried to stab him with a knife through the arteries in the head. They tried to immobilize him with gas from a container.”

“Well it's a war!” he said. “Bandits are throwing a challenge!”

Pavlo Mazurenko, an activist at the protest in Kiev , died on December 22 from inflicted wounds after he had been severely beaten on December 18 by three law enforcement officers, his wife told Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper on Tuesday.

The latest attacks come days after two unidentified assailants tried to assassinate Volodymyr Maralov, an activist at the Road Control, a website that exposes police brutality and corruption.

Maralov coordinated motorist protests during recent anti-government rallies. The assailants shot Maralov in the heart, but had missed an inch. He now recovers in a Kiev hospital.

Chornovol was returning home outside Kiev late Tuesday when her car had been chased and forced to stop by the two unidentified assailants. She tried to escape, but the assailants had thrown her to the ground and launched a ferocious attack on her, badly beating and disfiguring her face.

“She is in the emergency room. She has a concussion. Numerous bruises. She has a broken nose. Doctors are stitching her face,” Mustafa Nayem, a reporter and a colleague of Chornovol, reported on Twitter.

“This is the face of the Yanukovych government,” Serhiy Leshchenko, a reporter at the Ukrayinska Pravda, wrote in his blog. “It does not matter who has executed the order to carry out the attempted murder: [Andriy Kliuiev, or Zakharchenko, or the Donetsk bandits.

“What matters is that Yanukovych is the guarantor of the Constitution. Nowhere does the Constitution say that one can kill women or journalists. So, Yanukovych must bear responsibility.”

Chornovol exposed alleged corruption by the Yanukovych family, in one case traveling to a remote area of Ukraine in Crimea to photograph and to report on a palace that is being built for Yanukovych.

In another case, Chornovol sneaked into Yanukovych’s well-protected property of Mezhihiriya near Kiev to take pictures and to file a report. The property, the size of Hyde Park in London , was apparently acquired through controversial dealings.

Chornovol was first to suggest that thousands of protesters should march to visit the Mezhihiriya property to put further pressure on Yanukovych. She, along with a group of fellow protesters, marched to Mezhihiriya, earlier this month, detailing the march and the face off with riot police in her blog.

But Yanukovcyh was not the only target of Chornovol’s reports.

Hours before she was savagely attacked, Chornovol reported on her blog on a luxurious property near Kiev that Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko, builds for himself.

Protesters demand Zakharchenko to step down after he has reportedly ordered deployment of riot police to brutally crack down on protesters on November 30.

“Here lives the butcher!” Chornovol reported in her blog providing pictures of Zakharchenko’s property.

She said the property is surrounded by 300 meter fence and has a number of buildings. She said Zakharchenko checks on the property and construction by using a helicopter.

“Indeed, far from the estate is a helipad and hangar for helicopters,” Chornovol reported. (tl/ez)