A decade since the Maidan revolution in Ukraine, the protest that led to war

2023-11-21 08:43:18

Peace jumped into the air ago today 10 years in Ukraine. On November 21, 2013, the then Ukrainian Government, led by the authoritarian Viktor Yanukovychannounced its intention to strengthen the relationship with Russia and not sign a long-negotiated agreement with the European Union (EU) for greater integration of the Slavic country into the community club.

That was the spark that lit the fuse of the Euromaidán (Fromaidan). A citizen protest that ended three months later with dozens of deaths, Yanukovych’s flight from the country and the end of international balances existing between the West and Moscow since the end of the Cold War. What was broken was not put back together.

Several incubated crises since the dismemberment of the USSR (of which Ukraine had been a part), and geopolitical faults of enormous draft, they overcame at that time and contributed to the outbreak of the revolt.

On the one hand, his own pulse with Moscow (firmly opposed to a move away from its sphere of influence from the neighboring country) and the West (favorable to the integration of Ukraine into its international organizations); on the other hand, the internal contrast between the two Ukraines, one Russian-speaking (mostly in the south and industrialized east) and more economically integrated into Russia, and the other determined to break that bond; underlying everything, the unresolved question of the widespread corruption and social injustice that plagues this country with great resources and enormous potential.

The antecedent

So much so that the Euromaidan protest was born from the ashes of the so-called Orange Revolutionfueled in 2004 mainly by opposition political parties, but which later betrayed many promises policies, legitimate desires for change and protests from a population also fed up with a true plague in the Slavic country: its oligarchs. Millionaires who, in many cases, after independence of Ukraine (1991) looted strategic industries and they massively occupied spaces of economic and political power of the new State.

Which fueled the gap between those who have more and those who have less. “Ukraine is a potentially rich country turned to poor due to a tragic story. In the years since independence, Ukraine has grown along with the region, but despite high expectations, it has been a bitter disappointment,” read a 2012 Carniege Institute report.

In this incendiary climate, in November 2013, a handful of young people settled at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (kyiv’s Independence Square), while other similar protests began to take place in different cities of the country. Initially with the public slogan of releasing a non-partisan protestin favor of Europe and against the Ukrainian Government, the protesters soon ended up sharing the stage with representatives of the political opposition contrary to Yanukovych. One of them: former boxer Vitaly Klitschko, then leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR) and today mayor of kyiv.

Thus, if Europe had initially been the magic word that had united the protesters, then the various crises Ukrainian they meltedtransforming into an explosive cocktail.

Yanukovych

The protest was also heated by the Yanukovych, who reacted with rigidity to dissent. The first critical moment was the police charge against the students that occurred on the night between November 29 and 30. After that, the use of violence against protesters led to in massive protests that the president and his entourage could no longer control.

The peaceful mobilizations then they became radicalized, also due to the appearance of far-right youth groups, who began to clash more frequently with the Ukrainian police. In parallel, the square began to openly ask for Yanukovych’s resignation from office. In response, the Ukrainian Executive promoted various laws against freedom of concentration and expression.

The european diplomacywho had initially absent-mindedly supported the protesters, then tried to mediate. But it was not successful. Nor did one of Yanukovych’s few attempts to cool things down: his decision to enact the February 1 an amnesty law for those detained during the protests. It had no effect. The demonstrations continued and resulted in increasingly violent clashes.

In those days, a dark episode was the leak of a conversation between the ambassador for European Affairs of USA, Victoria Nuland, and the ambassador in kyiv, Geoffrey Pyatt. At one point in the conversation suggesting that the EU is being too lukewarm towards Ukraine, Nuland says: “And you know, Fuck the EU“.

tragic days

Then, between February 18 and 20, everything got out of control. Protesters They tried to enter Parliament and attacked several public buildingswhich led to the bloodiest episodes of the protest: more than 100 muertos in the clashes between protesters and riot police (the hated Berkut). “This absurd loss of human life is deeply disturbing,” John Dalhuisen commented on February 20director of the Europe and Central Asia section of Amnesty International.

Under these circumstances, on February 22, the Ukrainian parliament dismisses Yanukovychwho fled to Russia denouncing what he described as a coup. Ukraine thus entered two other major crises: first in Crimea, and then in eastern Ukraine, fueled by the separatist tensions in those territories and supported by Russia. Germ of the current world disorder.