Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of

demonstrations Demonstration may refer to: * Demonstration (acting), part of the Brechtian approach to acting * Demonstration (military), an attack or show of force on a front where a decision is not sought * Demonstration (political), a political rally or prot ...

and

civil unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in

Maidan Nezalezhnosti Maidan Nezalezhnosti ( uk, Майдан Незалежності , literally "Independence Square") is the central square of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. One of the city's main squares, it is located on Khreshchatyk Street in the Shevchen ...

(Independence Square) in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

and the

Eurasian Economic Union The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU or EEU)EAEU is the acronym used on thorganisation's website However, many media outlets use the acronym EEU. is an economic union of some post-Soviet states located in Eurasia. The Treaty on the Eurasian Econo ...

. Ukraine's parliament had overwhelmingly approved of finalizing the Agreement with the EU, while Russia had put pressure on Ukraine to reject it. The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of D ...

and the Azarov Government.Kiev protesters gather, EU and Putin joust

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

(12 December 2013) The protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption, the influence of oligarchs, abuse of power, and violation of

human rights in Ukraine Human rights in Ukraine is a highly contested topic. Since 2017, Freedom House has given Ukraine ratings from 60 to 62 on its 100-point scale, and a "partly free" overall rating. Ratings on electoral processes have generally been good, but ther ...

.Yanukovych Offers Opposition Leaders Key Posts

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

(25 January 2014)

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

named Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November caused further anger. The Euromaidan led to the 2014

Revolution of Dignity The Revolution of Dignity ( uk, Революція гідності, translit=Revoliutsiia hidnosti) also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution,

. During the uprising, Independence Square (Maidan) in Kyiv was a huge

protest camp Protest camps are physical camps that are set up by activists, to either provide a base for protest, or to delay, obstruct or prevent the focus of their protest by physically blocking it with the camp. Protest camps may also have a symbolic or re ...

occupied by thousands of protesters and protected by makeshift barricades. It had kitchens, first aid posts and broadcasting facilities, as well as stages for speeches, lectures, debates and performances. It was guarded by 'Maidan Self-Defense' units made up of volunteers in improvised uniform and helmets, carrying shields and armed with sticks, stones and petrol bombs. Protests were also held in many other parts of Ukraine. In Kyiv, there were clashes with police on 1 December; and police assaulted the camp on 11 December. Protests increased from mid-January, in response to the government introducing draconian anti-protest laws. There were deadly clashes on Hrushevsky Street on 19–22 January. Protesters occupied government buildings in many regions of Ukraine. The uprising climaxed on 18–20 February, when fierce fighting in Kyiv between Maidan activists and police resulted in the deaths of almost 100 protesters and 13 police. As a result, an agreement was signed on 21 February 2014 by Yanukovych and leaders of the parliamentary opposition that called for the creation of an interim unity government, constitutional reforms and early elections. Shortly after the agreement, Yanukovych and other government ministers fled the country. Parliament then removed Yanukovych from office and installed an

interim government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...

. The

Revolution of Dignity The Revolution of Dignity ( uk, Революція гідності, translit=Revoliutsiia hidnosti) also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution,

was soon followed by the Russian annexation of Crimea and pro-Russian unrest in Eastern Ukraine, eventually escalating into the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Rev ...

Overview

The demonstrations began on the night of 21 November 2013, when protests erupted in the capital,

, after the Ukrainian government rejected draft laws that would allow the release of jailed opposition leader

Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan ();preparations for signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

, to seek closer economic relations with Russia. The reversal was preceded by a campaign of threats, insults and preemptive trade restrictions from Russia. On 24 November 2013, clashes between protesters and police began. Protesters strived to break cordon. Police used tear gas and batons. Protesters also used tear gas and some fire crackers (according to the police, protesters were the first to use them). After a few days of demonstrations an increasing number of

university students A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in pri ...

joined the protests. The Euromaidan has been characterised as an event of major political symbolism for the European Union itself, particularly as "the largest ever pro-European rally in history." Euromaidan 01

The protests continued despite heavy

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest a ...

presence,Live updates of the protests
''

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. History American Jed Sunden founded the ''Kyiv Post'' weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. ...

'' (27, 28 and 29 November 2013)Protests continue in Kiev ahead of Vilnius EU summit
,

Euronews Euronews (styled on-air in lowercase as euronews) is a European television news network, headquartered in Lyon, France. The network began broadcasting on 1 January 1993 and covers world news from a European perspective. The majority of Euron ...

(27 November 2013) regularly sub-freezing temperatures, and snow. Escalating violence from government forces in the early morning of 30 November caused the level of protests to rise, with 400,000–800,000 protesters, according to Russia's opposition politician

Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov ( rus, Бори́с Ефи́мович Немцо́в, p=bɐˈrʲis jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ nʲɪmˈtsof; 9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. He was involved in the introduction ...

, demonstrating in Kyiv on the weekends of 1 December and 8 December. In the preceding weeks, protest attendance had fluctuated from 50,000 to 200,000 during organised rallies.Ukraine pro-Europe protesters hold first big rally of 2014

(12 January 2014) Violent riots took place 1 December and 19 January through 25 January in response to police brutality and government repression. Starting 23 January, several

Western Ukrainian Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian ...

Oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom ...

(province) government buildings and regional councils were occupied in a revolt by Euromaidan activists. In the

Russophone This article details the geographical distribution of Russian-speakers. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the status of the Russian language often became a matter of controversy. Some Post-Soviet states adopted policies of derussi ...

cities of

Zaporizhzhya Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populatio ...

Sumy Sumy ( uk, Суми ) is a city of regional significance in Ukraine, and the capital of Sumy Oblast. The city is situated on the banks of the Psel River in northeastern Ukraine with a population of according to the 2021 census, making it the 2 ...

, and Dnipropetrovsk, protesters also tried to take over their local government buildings and were met with considerable force from both police and government supporters. According to journalist Lecia Bushak writing in the 18 February 2014 issue of ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' magazine,

EuroMaidan adgrown into something far bigger than just an angry response to the fallen-through EU deal. It's now about ousting Yanukovych and his corrupt government; guiding Ukraine away from its 200-year-long, deeply intertwined and painful relationship with Russia; and standing up for basic human rights to protest, speak and think freely and to act peacefully without the threat of punishment.

A turning point came in late February, when enough members of the president's party fled or defected for the party to lose its majority in parliament, leaving the opposition large enough to form the necessary

quorum A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

. This allowed parliament to pass a series of laws that removed police from Kyiv, canceled anti-protest operations, restored the 2004 constitution, freed political detainees, and removed President Yanukovych from office. Yanukovych then fled to Ukraine's second-largest city of

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. A Twitter account named Euromaidan was created on the first day of the protests. It soon became popular in the international media. The name is composed of two parts: "Euro" is short for Europe, reflecting the pro-European aspirations of the protestors, and "maidan" refers to

(Independence Square), the large square in the downtown of Kyiv, where the protests mostly took place. The word "Maidan" is a Persian word meaning "square" or "open space". It is a loanword in many other languages and was adopted into both the Ukrainian language and the Russian as spoken in Ukraine from the Ottoman Empire. During the protests, the word "Maidan" acquired the meaning of the public practice of politics and protest. When Euromaidan first began, media outlets in Ukraine dubbed the movement ''Eurorevolution'' ( uk, Єврореволюція, Russian: Еврореволюция), though the term soon fell out of use. The term "Ukrainian Spring" was occasionally used during the protests, echoing the term

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econom ...

Initial causes

On 30 March 2012 the European Union (EU) and Ukraine initiated an Association Agreement; however, the EU leaders later stated that the agreement would not be ratified unless Ukraine addressed concerns over a "stark deterioration of democracy and the rule of law", including the imprisonment of

Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan ();Yuriy Lutsenko in 2011 and 2012.Ukraine's jailed Tymoshenko calls off hunger strike
''

'' (16 November 2012) In the months leading up to the protests

Ukrainian President The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...

urged the

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...

to adopt laws so that Ukraine would meet the EU's criteria."EU Commissioner Fule expects Rada to pass European integration bills on November 21"

Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company pub ...

(20 November 2013) On 25 September 2013

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Голова Верховної Ради України, Holova Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy) is the presiding officer of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's unicameral parliament. The chairman presides ...

(Ukraine's parliament) Volodymyr Rybak stated he was sure that his parliament would pass all the laws needed to fit the EU criteria for the Association Agreement since, except for the

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine, Abbreviation: KPU, from Ukrainian and Russian "" is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 as the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine which was banned in 1991 (accord ...

, "The Verkhovna Rada has united around these bills." According to

Pavlo Klimkin Pavlo Anatoliiovych Klimkin ( uk, Павло Анатолійович Клімкін; born 25 December 1967) is a Ukrainian diplomat who from 19 June 2014 until 29 August 2019 served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. A Moscow-educated p ...

, one of the Ukrainian negotiators of the Association Agreement, initially "the Russians simply did not believe

he association agreement with the EU He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

could come true. They didn't believe in our ability to negotiate a good agreement and didn't believe in our commitment to implement a good agreement." In mid-August 2013 Russia changed its customs regulations on imports from UkraineEased Russian customs rules to save Ukraine $1.5 bln in 2014, says minister

(18 December 2013) such that on 14 August 2013, the Russian Custom Service stopped all goods coming from Ukraine and prompted politicians and sourcesEased Russian customs rules to save Ukraine $1.5 bln in 2014, says minister

(18 December 2013)
Russia to lift restrictions on Ukrainian pipe imports – Ukrainian ministry

(18 December 2013)
Russia tightens customs rules to force Ukraine into union

(15 August 2013)Russia cuts Ukraine gas price by a third

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

(17 December 2013) to view the move as the start of a trade war against Ukraine to prevent Ukraine from signing a trade agreement with the European Union. Ukrainian Industrial Policy Minister Mykhailo Korolenko stated on 18 December 2013 that because of this Ukraine's exports had dropped by $1.4 billion (or a 10% year-on-year decrease through the first 10 months of the year). The

State Statistics Service of Ukraine State Statistics Committee of Ukraine ( uk, Державний Комітет Статистики України, ''Derzhavnyi Komitet Statystyky Ukrainy'') is the government agency responsible for collection and dissemination of statistics in Uk ...

reported in November 2013 that in comparison with the same months of 2012, industrial production in Ukraine in October 2013 had fallen by 4.9 percent, in September 2013 by 5.6 percent, and in August 2013 by 5.4 percent (and that the industrial production in Ukraine in 2012 total had fallen by 1.8 percent). On 21 November 2013 a

Ukrainian government The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine ( uk, Кабінет Міністрів України, translit=Kabinet Ministriv Ukrainy; shortened to CabMin), commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine ( uk, Уряд України, ''Uriad Ukrai ...

decree suspended preparations for signing of the Association Agreement. Cox-Kwasniewski mission to continue until Eastern Partnership Summit

(21 November 2013) The reason given was that in the previous months Ukraine had experienced "a drop in industrial production and our relations with CIS ommonwealth of Independent Statescountries". The government also assured, "Ukraine will resume preparing the agreement when the drop in industrial production and our relations with Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries are compensated by the European market."Ukraine to resume preparing agreement with EU when compensation for production drop found – Boiko

(21 November 2013) According to Ukrainian Prime Minister

Mykola Azarov Mykola Yanovych Azarov ( uk, Мико́ла Я́нович Аза́ров, ; né Pakhlo; Cyrillic: Пахло; born 17 December 1947) is a Ukrainian politician who was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 11 March 2010 to 27 January 2014. He was t ...

, "the extremely harsh conditions" of an

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster gl ...

(IMF)

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

(presented by the IMF on 20 November 2013), which included big budget cuts and a 40% increase in gas bills, had been the last argument in favour of the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend preparations for signing the Association Agreement. On 7 December 2013 the IMF clarified that it was not insisting on a single-stage increase in natural gas tariffs in Ukraine by 40%, but recommended that they be gradually raised to an economically justified level while compensating the poorest segments of the population for the losses from such an increase by strengthening targeted social assistance. The same day, IMF

Resident Representative A resident representative is the head of a United Nations agency (such as UNDP, UNICEF, WHO) in a given country. As such, the resident representative has the same rank as an ambassador of a foreign state accredited to that country, under the Conv ...

in Ukraine

Jerome Vacher Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is comm ...

stated that this particular IMF loan was worth US$4 billion and that it would be linked with "policy, which would remove disproportions and stimulate growth". President Yanukovych attended the 28–29 November 2013 EU summit in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

(where originally it was planned that the Association Agreement would be signed on 29 November 2013), but the Association Agreement was not signed.Ukraine fails to sign landmark deal at EU summit
,

(29 November 2013)Ukraine's rejection of EU deal brings rival rallies at home
,

(29 November 2013) Both Yanukovych and high level EU officials signalled that they wanted to sign the Association Agreement at a later date.Barroso: EU to continue its dialog with Ukraine on principles of mutual respect, transparency and responsibility

(29 November 2013)EU and Ukraine say 'door still open' for future trade pact
,

(29 November 2013) In an interview with Lally Weymouth, Ukrainian billionaire businessman and opposition leader

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko se ...

said, On 11 December 2013 the Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, said he had asked for €20 billion (US$27 billion) in loans and aid to offset the cost of the EU deal. The EU was willing to offer €610 million (US$838 million) in loans, but Russia was willing to offer US$15 billion in loans. Russia also offered Ukraine cheaper gas prices. As a condition for the loans, the EU required major changes to the regulations and laws in Ukraine. Russia did not.

Public opinion about Euromaidan

According to December 2013 polls (by three different pollsters), between 45% and 50% of Ukrainians supported Euromaidan, while between 42% and 50% opposed it. The biggest support for the protest was found in Kyiv (about 75%) and

western Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austri ...

(more than 80%).Ukraine protesters take rally to Yanukovich's residence
''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

'' (29 December 2013) Among Euromaidan protesters, 55% were from the west of the country, with 24% from central Ukraine and 21% from the east. In a poll taken on 7–8 December, 73% of protesters had committed to continue protesting in Kyiv as long as needed until their demands were fulfilled. This number had increased to 82% as of 3 February 2014. Polls also showed that the nation was divided in age: while a majority of young people were pro-EU, older generations (50 and above) more often preferred the

Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia The Eurasian Customs Union (EACU; russian: Таможенный союз ЕАЭС, Tamozhenyi soyuz) was a customs union consisting of all the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union. The customs union was a principal task of the Eurasian E ...

. More than 41% of protesters were ready to take part in the seizure of administrative buildings as of February, compared to 13 and 19 percent during polls on 10 and 20 December 2013. At the same time, more than 50 percent were ready to take part in the creation of independent military units, compared to 15 and 21 percent during the past studies, respectively. According to a January poll, 45% of Ukrainians supported the protests, and 48% of Ukrainians disapproved of Euromaidan. In a March poll, 57% of Ukrainians said they supported the Euromaidan protests. A study of public opinion in regular and social media found that 74% of Russian speakers in Ukraine supported the Euromaidan movement, and a quarter opposed.

Public opinion about joining the EU

According to an August 2013 study by a

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: cities' alternative names), is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine loc ...

company, Research & Branding Group, 49% of Ukrainians supported signing the Association Agreement, while 31% opposed it and the rest had not decided yet. However, in a December poll by the same company, only 30% claimed that terms of the Association Agreement would be beneficial for the Ukrainian economy, while 39% said they were unfavourable for Ukraine. In the same poll, only 30% said the opposition would be able to stabilise the society and govern the country well, if coming to power, while 37% disagreed. Authors of the

GfK Ukraine GfK (originally german: GfK-Nürnberg Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung e.V., lit=Nuremberg Society for Consumer Research, label=none) is a provider of data and intelligence to the consumer goods industry. It is headquartered in Nuremberg, German ...

poll conducted 2–15 October 2013 claim that 45% of respondents believed Ukraine should sign an Association Agreement with the EU, whereas only 14% favoured joining the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and 15% preferred non-alignment. Full text of the EU-related question asked by GfK reads, ''"Should Ukraine sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, and, in the future, become an EU member?"'' Another poll conducted in November by IFAK Ukraine for DW-Trend showed 58% of Ukrainians supporting the country's entry into the European Union. On the other hand, a November 2013 poll by

Kyiv International Institute of Sociology Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, or KIIS ( uk, Київський міжнародний інститут соціології, КМІС), is a Ukrainian organization conducting sociological research in the fields of social and socioec ...

showed 39% supporting the country's entry into the European Union and 37% supporting Ukraine's accession to the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. In December 2013, then

Prime Minister of Ukraine The prime minister of Ukraine ( uk, Прем'єр-міністр України, ) is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of t ...

Mykola Azarov refuted the pro-EU poll numbers claiming that many polls posed questions about Ukraine joining the EU, and that Ukraine had never been invited to join the Union, but only to sign the

European Union Association Agreement A European Union Association Agreement or simply Association Agreement (AA) is a treaty between the European Union (EU), its Member States and a non-EU country that creates a framework for co-operation between them. Areas frequently covered by s ...

(a treaty between the EU and a non-EU nation).

Comparison with the Orange Revolution

The pro-European Union protests are Ukraine's largest since the

Orange Revolution The Orange Revolution ( uk, Помаранчева революція, translit=Pomarancheva revoliutsiia) was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate afterm ...

of 2004, which saw Yanukovych forced to resign as prime minister over allegations of voting irregularities. Although comparing the 2013 events in the same

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

vector as 2004, with Ukraine remaining "a key geopolitical prize in eastern Europe" for Russia and the EU, ''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...

'' noted that Yanukovych's government was in a significantly stronger position following his election in 2010. The ''

'' said the 2013 protests were "largely spontaneous, sparked by social media, and have caught Ukraine's political opposition unprepared" compared to their well-organised predecessors. The hashtag #euromaidan (

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * Som ...

: #євромайдан, Russian: #евромайдан), emerged immediately on the first meeting of the protests and was highly useful as a communication instrument for protesters.

Vitali Klitschko Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyivndependence Square well done! Who has not done it yet – join us now!" The protest hashtag also gained traction on the VKontakte social media network, and Klitschko tweeted a link to a speech he made on the square saying that once the protest was 100,000-strong, "we'll go for Yanukovych" – referring to President Viktor Yanukovych. In an interview, opposition leader Yuriy Lutsenko, when asked if the current opposition was weaker than it was in 2004, argued that the opposition was stronger because the stakes were higher, "I asked each f the opposition leaders 'Do you realise that this is not a protest? It is a revolution ..we have two roads – we go to prison or we win.'"

Paul Robert Magocsi Paul Robert Magocsi (born January 26, 1945 in Englewood, New Jersey) is an American professor of history, political science, and Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He has been with the university since 1980, and became a ...

illustrated the effect of the Orange Revolution on Euromaidan, saying,

Was the Orange Revolution a genuine revolution? Yes it was. And we see the effects today. The revolution wasn't a revolution of the streets or a revolution of (political) elections; it was a revolution of the minds of people, in the sense that for the first time in a long time, Ukrainians and people living in territorial Ukraine saw the opportunity to protest and change their situation. This was a profound change in the character of the population of the former Soviet Union.

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukra ...

-based historian Yaroslav Hrytsak also remarked on the generational shift,

This is a revolution of the generation that we call the contemporaries of Ukraine's independence (who were born around the time of 1991); it is more similar to the Occupy Wall Street protests or those in Istanbul demonstrations (of this year). It's a revolution of young people who are very educated, people who are active in social media, who are mobile and 90 percent of whom have university degrees, but who don't have futures.

According to Hrytsak: "Young Ukrainians resemble young Italians, Czech, Poles, or Germans more than they resemble Ukrainians who are 50 and older. This generation has a stronger desire for European integration and fewer regional divides than their seniors." In a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll taken in September, joining the European Union was mostly supported by young Ukrainians (69.8% of those aged 18 to 29), higher than the national average of 43.2% support.Which way Ukraine should go – which union should join?

(3 October 2013) A November 2013 poll by the same institute found the same result with 70.8% aged 18 to 29 wanting to join the European Union while 39.7% was the national average of support. An opinion poll by

GfK GfK (originally german: GfK-Nürnberg Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung e.V., lit=Nuremberg Society for Consumer Research, label=none) is a provider of data and intelligence to the consumer goods industry. It is headquartered in Nuremberg, German ...

conducted 2–15 October found that among respondents aged 16–29 with a position on integration, 73% favoured signing an Association Agreement with the EU, while only 45% of those over the age of 45 favoured Association. The lowest support for European integration was among people with incomplete secondary and higher education.

Escalation to violence

The movement started peacefully but violence broke out, especially in January and February 2014. The

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

said on 19 February 2014: In the early stages of Euromaidan, there was discussion about whether the Euromaidan movement constituted a revolution – or a staged '

Colour Revolution Colour revolution (sometimes coloured revolution) is a term used since around 2004 by worldwide media to describe various anti-regime protest movements and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government that took place in Post ...

' by outside forces. At the time many protest leaders (such as

Oleh Tyahnybok Oleh Yaroslavovych Tyahnybok ( uk, Оле́г Яросла́вович Тягнибо́к, born 7 November 1968) is a Ukrainian politician and far-right activist who is a former member of the Verkhovna Rada and the leader of the Ukrainian nation ...

) had already used this term frequently when addressing the public. Tyahnybok called in an official 2 December press release for police officers and members of the military to defect to 'the Ukrainian revolution'. In a

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, ...

interview with media analyst Andrij Holovatyj, Vitaly Portnikov, Council Member of the "Maidan" National Alliance and President and Editor-in-Chief of the Ukrainian television channel TVi, stated "EuroMaidan is a revolution and revolutions can drag on for years" and that "what is happening in Ukraine goes much deeper. It is changing the national fabric of Ukraine." On 10 December Yanukovych said, "Calls for a revolution pose a threat to national security." Former

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

n president Mikhail Saakashvili has described the movement as "the first geopolitical revolution of the 21st century". Political expert

Anders Åslund Per Anders Åslund (; born 17 February 1952) is a Swedish economist and former Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He is also a chairman of the International Advisory Council at the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE). His work fo ...

commented on this aspect,

Revolutionary times have their own logic that is very different from the logic of ordinary politics, as writers from
Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his wor ...
to
Crane Brinton Clarence Crane Brinton (Winsted, Connecticut, 1898 – Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 7, 1968) was an American historian of France, as well as an historian of ideas. His most famous work, '' The Anatomy of Revolution'' (1938) likened the dy ...
have taught. The first thing to understand about Ukraine today is that it has entered a revolutionary stage. Like it or not, we had better deal with the new environment rationally.

Demands

On 29 November, a formal resolution by protest organisers made the following demands: #The formation of a co-ordinating committee to communicate with the European community. #A statement indicating that the president, parliament, and the Cabinet of Ministers weren't capable of carrying out a geopolitically strategic course of development for the state and demanding Yanukovych's resignation. #The cessation of political repression against EuroMaidan activists, students, civic activists and opposition leaders. The resolution stated that on 1 December, on the 22nd anniversary of Ukraine's

independence referendum An independence referendum is a type of referendum in which the residents of a territory decide whether the territory should become an independent sovereign state. An independence referendum that results in a vote for independence does not alwa ...

, the group would gather at noon on Independence Square to announce their further course of action. After the forced police dispersal of all protesters from Maidan Nezalezhnosti on the night of 30 November, the dismissal of Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaliy Zakharchenko became one of the protesters' main demands.Ukraine's interior minister has no intention to resign

(5 December 2013) A petition to the US

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...

demanding sanctions against Viktor Yanukovych and Ukrainian government ministers gathered over 100,000 signatures in four days. Ukrainian students nationwide also demanded the dismissal of Minister of Education

Dmytro Tabachnyk Dmytro Volodymyrovych Tabachnyk ( uk, Дмитро Володимирович Табачник, ; born November 26, 1963) is a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician, and former science and education minister of Ukraine.Batkivshchyna The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" ( uk, Всеукраїнське об'єднання "Батьківщина", translit=Vseukrains'ke obiednannia "Bat'kivshchyna") referred to as Batkivshchyna (), is a political party in Ukraine led by Pe ...

faction leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated,

Our three demands to the Verkhovna Rada and the president remained unchanged: the resignation of the government; the release of all political prisoners, first and foremost;
he release of former Ukrainian Prime Minister He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
Yulia Tymoshenko; and he release ofnine individuals ho were illegally convicted after being present at a rally on Bankova Street on December 1]; the suspension of all criminal cases; and the arrest of all Berkut officers who were involved in the illegal beating up of children on Maidan Nezalezhnosti.Yatseniuk: Current political crisis cannot be resolved through parliamentary methods

Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company pub ...
(5 December 2013)

The opposition also demanded that the government resume negotiations with the IMF for a

that they saw as key to helping Ukraine "through economic troubles that have made Yanukovych lean toward Russia".

Timeline of the events

The Euromaidan protest movement began late at night on 21 November 2013 as a peaceful protest. The 1,500 protesters were summoned following a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

post by a journalist,

Mustafa Nayyem Mustafa Masi Nayyem ( uk, Мустафа Найєм, ps, مصطفی نعیم) is an Afghan-Ukrainian journalist, MP, lecturer at the Kyiv School of Economics, and public figure who was influential in sparking the Euromaidan in Ukraine. Formerly, ...

, calling for a rally against the government.

Riots in Kyiv

On 30 November 2013, protests were dispersed violently by Berkut riot police units, sparking riots the following day in Kyiv. On 1 December 2013, protesters reoccupied the square, and through December, further clashes with the authorities and political ultimatums by the opposition ensued. This culminated in a series of anti-protest laws by the government on 16 January 2014 and further rioting on Hrushevskoho Street. Early February 2014 saw a bombing of the Trade Unions Building, as well as the formation of "Self Defense" teams by protesters.

1 December 2013 riots

11 December 2013 assault on Maidan

Hrushevsky Street riots

On 19 January a Sunday mass protest, the ninth in a row, took place, gathering up to 200,000 in central Kyiv to protest against the new anti-protest laws, dubbed the Dictatorship Laws. Many protesters ignored the face concealment ban by wearing party masks, hard hats and gas masks. Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko appeared covered with powder after he was sprayed with a fire extinguisher. Riot police and government supporters cornered a group of people who were trying to seize government buildings. The number of riot police on Hrushevskoho Street increased after buses and army trucks showed up. The latter resulted in the buses being burned as a barricade. The next day, a clean-up began in Kyiv. On 22 January, more violence erupted in Kyiv. This resulted in 8–9 people dead.

February 2014: Revolution

The deadliest clashes were on 18–20 February, which saw the most severe violence in Ukraine since it regained independence. Thousands of protesters advanced towards parliament, led by activists with shields and helmets, and were fired on by police snipers. Almost 100 were killed. On 21 February, an agreement was signed by Yanukovych and leaders of the parliamentary opposition (

Vitaly Klitschko Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv Arseny Yatsenyuk Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk ( uk, Арсеній Петрович Яценюк ; born 22 May 1974) is a Ukrainian politician, economist and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine twice – from 27 February 2014 to 27 November 2014 and fr ...

) under the mediation of EU and Russian representatives. There was to be an interim unity government formed, constitutional reforms to reduce the president's powers, and early elections. Protesters were to leave occupied buildings and squares, and the government would not apply a state of emergency. The United States supported a stipulation that Yanukovych remain president in the meantime, but Maidan protesters demanded his resignation. The signing was witnessed by Foreign Ministers of Poland, Germany and France. The Russian representative would not sign the agreement. The next day, 22 February, Yanukovych fled to Donetsk and Crimea and parliament voted to remove him from office. On 24 February Yanukovych arrived in Russia.

Protests across Ukraine

A 24 November 2013 protest in

Ivano-Frankivsk Ivano-Frankivsk ( uk, Іва́но-Франкі́вськ, translit=Iváno-Frankívśk ), formerly Stanyslaviv ( pl, Stanisławów ; german: Stanislau), is a city located in Western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of Ivano-Frankivsk Obl ...

saw several thousand protestors gather at the regional administration building. No classes were held in the universities of western Ukrainian cities such as

, Ivano-Frankivsk and

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod ( uk, У́жгород, , ; ) is a city and municipality on the river Uzh in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistant from the Baltic, the Adriatic and the ...

. Protests also took place in other large Ukrainian cities, such as

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: cities' alternative names), is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine loc ...

, Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro), and

Luhansk Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). ...

. The rally in Lviv in support of the integration of Ukraine into the EU was initiated by the students of local universities. This rally saw 25–30 thousand protesters gather on Prospect Svobody (Freedom Avenue) in Lviv. The organisers planned to continue this rally until the 3rd

Eastern Partnership The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a joint initiative of the European External Action Service of the European Union (EU) together with the EU, its member states, and six Eastern European partners governing the EU's relationship with the post-So ...

summit in

, Lithuania, on 28–29 November 2013. A rally in

Simferopol Simferopol () is the second-largest city in the Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, it is u ...

, which drew around 300, saw nationalists and

Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...

unite to support European integration; the protesters sang both the Ukrainian national anthem and the anthem of the

Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (german: Ukrainische Sitschower Schützen; uk, Українські cічові стрільці (УСС), translit=Ukraïnski sichovi stril’tsi (USS)) was a Ukrainian unit within the Austro-Hungarian Army du ...

. 7 people were injured after a tent encampment in Dnipropetrovsk was ordered cleared by court order on 25 November and it appeared that thugs had undertaken to perform the clearance. Officials estimated the number of attackers to be 10–15, and police did not intervene in the attacks. Similarly, police in

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern sho ...

ignored calls to stop the demolition of Euromaidan camps in the city by a group of 30, and instead removed all parties from the premises. 50 police officers and men in plain clothes also drove out a Euromaidan protest in

Chernihiv Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...

the same day. On 25 November, in Odesa, 120 police raided and destroyed a tent encampment made by protesters at 5:20 in the morning. The police detained three of the protesters, including the leader of the Odesa branch of Democratic Alliance, Alexei Chorny. All three were beaten in the police vehicle and then taken to the Portofrankovsk Police Station without their arrival being recorded. The move came after the District Administrative Court earlier issued a ban restricting citizens' right to peaceful assembly until New Year. The court ruling places a blanket ban on all demonstrations, the use of tents, sound equipment and vehicles until the end of the year. On 26 November, a rally of 50 was held in Donetsk. On 28 November, a rally was held in

Yalta Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Cri ...

; university faculty who attended were pressured to resign by university officials. On 29 November, Lviv protesters numbered some 20,000.Ukraine opposition demands leader resign after EU snub

Seven News ''7NEWS'' is the television news service of the Seven Network and, as of 2021, the highest-rating in Australia. National bulletins are presented from Seven's high-definition television, high definition studios in Martin Place, Sydney, while f ...

(30 November 2013) Like in Kyiv, they locked hands in a human chain, symbolically linking Ukraine to the European Union (organisers claimed that some 100 people even crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border to extend the chain to the European Union). Euromaidan in Lviv (24

On 1 December, the largest rally outside of Kyiv took place in Lviv by the statue of

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, writ ...

, where over 50,000 protesters attended. Mayor Andriy Sadovy, council chairman Peter Kolody, and prominent public figures and politicians were in attendance. An estimated 300 rallied in the eastern city of Donetsk demanding that President Viktor Yanukovych and the government of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov resign. Meanwhile, in Kharkiv, thousands rallied with writer

Serhiy Zhadan Serhiy Viktorovych Zhadan ( uk, Сергі́й Ві́кторович Жада́н; born 23 August 1974 in Starobilsk, Luhansk oblast, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian poet, novelist, essayist, musician, translator, and social activist. Life and career Z ...

during a speech, calling for revolution. The protest was peaceful. Protesters claimed at least 4,000 attended, with other sources saying 2,000. In Dnipropetrovsk, 1,000 gathered to protest the EU agreement suspension, show solidarity with those in Kyiv, and demanded the resignation of local and metropolitan officials. They later marched, shouting "Ukraine is Europe" and "Revolution". EuroMaidan protests were also held in

(where 150–200 attended) and Odesa. On 2 December, in an act of solidarity,

Lviv Oblast Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a relational adjective—in English translating to a noun adjunct w ...

declared a

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coa ...

to mobilise support for protests in Kyiv, which was followed by the formal order of a general strike by the cities of

Ternopil Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

and Ivano-Frankivsk. In Dnipropetrovsk on 3 December, a group of 300 protested in favour of European integration and demanded the resignation of local authorities, heads of local police units, and the

Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( uk, Служба безпеки України, translit=Sluzhba bezpeky Ukrainy}) or SBU ( uk, СБУ, link=no) is the law enforcement authority and main intelligence and security agency of the Ukrainia ...

(SBU). On 7 December it was reported that police were prohibiting those from Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk from driving to Kyiv. Protests on 8 December saw record turnout in many Ukrainian cities, including several in eastern Ukraine. On the evening, the

fall of the monument to Lenin in Kyiv The ''Vladimir Lenin monument in Kyiv'' was a statue dedicated to Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The larger than life-size (3.45 meters 1.32 feet Lenin monument was built by Soviet sculptor Ser ...

took place. The statue made out of stone was completely hacked to pieces by jubilant demonstrators. On 9 December, a statue of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

was destroyed in the town of Kotovsk in

Odesa Oblast Odesa Oblast ( uk, Оде́ська о́бласть, translit=Odeska oblast), also referred to as Odeshchyna ( uk, Оде́щина) is an oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administr ...

. In Ternopil, Euromaidan organisers were prosecuted by authorities. The removal or destruction of Lenin monuments and statues gained particular momentum after the destruction of the Kyiv Lenin statue. The statue removal process was soon termed “Leninopad” (

: Ленінопад, Russian: Ленинопад), literally meaning “Leninfall” in English. Soon, activists pulled down a dozen monuments in the Kyiv region,

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative ...

, Chmelnitcki, and elsewhere, or damaged them during the course of the Euromaidan protests into spring of 2014. In other cities and towns, monuments were removed by organised heavy equipment and transported to scrapyards or dumps. On 14 December, Euromaidan supporters in Kharkiv voiced their disapproval of authorities fencing off Freedom Square from the public by covering the metal fence in placards. From 5 December, they became victims of theft and arson. A Euromaidan activist in Kharkiv was attacked by two men and stabbed twelve times. The assailants were unknown but activists told the Kharkiv-based civic organisation Maidan that they believe the city's mayor, Gennady Kernes, to be behind the attack. On 22 December, 2,000 rallied in Dnipropetrovsk. In late December, 500 marched in Donetsk. Due to the regime's hegemony in the city, foreign commentators have suggested that, "For 500 marchers to assemble in Donetsk is the equivalent of 50,000 in Lviv or 500,000 in Kyiv." On 5 January, marches in support of Euromaidan were held in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Kharkiv, the latter three drawing several hundred and Donetsk only 100. On 11 January 2014, 150 activists met in Kharkiv for a general forum on uniting the nationwide Euromaidan efforts. A church where some were meeting was stormed by over a dozen thugs, and others attacked meetings in a book store, smashing windows and deploying tear gas to stop the Maidan meetings from taking place. On 22 January in Donetsk, two simultaneous rallies were held – one pro-Euromaidan and one pro-government. The pro-government rally attracted 600 attendees, compared to about 100 from the Euromaidan side. Police reports claimed 5,000 attended to support the government, compared to only 60 from Euromaidan. In addition, approximately 150

titushky The Titushky (plural; uk, тітушки, russian: титушки) were mercenary agents in Ukraine who supported the Ukrainian security services during the administration of Viktor Yanukovych, often posing as street hooligans in sports clothin ...

appeared and encircled the Euromaidan protesters with megaphones and began a conflict, burning wreaths and Svoboda Party flags, shouting, "Down with fascists!", but were separated by police. Meanwhile, Donetsk City Council pleaded with the government to take tougher measures against Euromaidan protesters in Kyiv. Reports indicated a media blackout took place in Donetsk. In Lviv on 22 January, amid the police shootings of protesters in the capital, military barracks were surrounded by protesters. Many of the protesters included mothers whose sons were serving in the military, who pleaded with them not to deploy to Kyiv. In

Vinnytsia Vinnytsia ( ; uk, Вінниця, ; yi, װיניצע) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast and the largest city in the historic region o ...

on 22 January, thousands of protesters blocked the main street of the city and the traffic. Also, they brought "democracy in coffin" to the city hall, as a present to Yanukovych. On 23 January. Odesa city council member and Euromaidan activist Oleksandr Ostapenko's car was bombed. The Mayor of

threw his support behind the Euromaidan movement on 24 January, laying blame for the civil disorder in Kyiv on the

Party of Regions The Party of Regions ( uk, Партія регіонів, Partiia rehioniv, ; russian: Партия регионов, Partiya regionov) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that then grew to be the biggest party of U ...

and Communists. The Crimean parliament repeatedly stated that because of the events in Kyiv it was ready to join autonomous Crimea to Russia. On 27 February, armed men seized the Crimean parliament and raised the Russian flag. 27 February was later declared a day of celebration for the Russian

Spetsnaz Spetsnaz are special forces in numerous post-Soviet states. (The term is borrowed from rus, спецназ, p=spʲɪtsˈnas; abbreviation for or 'Special Purpose Military Units'; or .) Historically, the term ''spetsnaz'' referred to the So ...

special forces by Vladimir Putin by presidential decree. In the beginning of March, thousands of Crimean Tatars in support of Euromaidan clashed with pro-Russian protesters in Simferopol. On 4 March 2014, a mass pro-Euromaidan rally was held in Donetsk for the first time. About 2,000 people were there. Donetsk is a major city in the far east of Ukraine and served as Yanukovych's stronghold and the base of his supporters. On 5 March 2014, 7,000–10,000 people rallied in support of Euromaidan in the same place. After a leader declared the rally over, a fight broke out between pro-Euromaidan and 2,000 pro-Russian protesters.

Occupation of administrative buildings

Starting on 23 January, several Western Ukrainian

oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom ...

(province) government buildings and Regional State Administrations (RSAs) were occupied by Euromaidan activists. Several RSAs of the occupied oblasts then decided to ban the activities and symbols of the

and

in their oblast.Thousands mourn Ukraine protester amid unrest

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazee ...

(26 January 2014) In the cities of

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a popula ...

, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa, protesters also tried to take over their local RSAs.Ukraine protests 'spread' into Russia-influenced east

(26 January 2014)

Protests outside Ukraine

Smaller protests or ''Euromaidans'' have been held internationally, primarily among the larger Ukrainian diaspora populations in North America and Europe. The largest took place on 8 December 2013 in New York, with over 1,000 attending. Notably, in December 2013,

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

Palace of Culture and Science A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

, the Buffalo Electric Vehicle Company Tower in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

Cira Centre The Cira Centre is a 29- story, office high-rise in the University City section of Philadelphia, directly connected to Amtrak's 30th Street Station. Developed by Brandywine Realty Trust and designed by César Pelli, it was built in 2004-05 on ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, the

Tbilisi City Assembly The Tbilisi Sakrebulo ( ka, თბილისის საკრებულო, tr) is a representative body in the city government of Tbilisi, Georgia. It is also known in English as the Tbilisi City Council or Tbilisi Assembly. Sakrebulo ...

in Georgia, and

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

on the US-Canada border were illuminated in blue and yellow as a symbol of solidarity with Ukraine.

Antimaidan and pro-government rallies

Pro-government rallies during Euromaidan were largely credited as funded by the government. Several news outlets investigated the claims to confirm that by and large, attendees at pro-government rallies did so for financial compensation and not for political reasons, and were not an organic response to the Euromaidan. "People stand at Euromaidan protesting against the violation of human rights in the state, and they are ready to make sacrifices," said Oleksiy Haran, a political scientist at Kyiv Mohyla Academy in Kyiv. "People at Antimaidan stand for money only. The government uses these hirelings to provoke resistance. They won't be sacrificing anything."

Euromaidan groups

Automaidan

Automaidan was a movement within Euromaidan that sought the resignation of Ukrainian president

. It was made up mainly of drivers who would protect the protest camps and blockade streets. It organised a car procession on 29 December 2013 to the president's residence in Mezhyhirya to voice their protests at his refusal to sign the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement in December 2013. The motorcade was stopped a couple of hundred metres short of his residence. Automaidan was the repeated target of violent attacks by government forces and supporters.

Self-defence groups

Radically oriented masked protesters armed with shovels, Dynamivska str

On 30 November 2013, the day after the dispersion of Euromaidan, Euromaidan organisers, aided by groups such as Svoboda, created "Self-defence of the Maidan" – their own police force for protecting protesters from police and providing security within the city. Head of Self-defence is

Andriy Parubiy Andriy Volodymyrovych Parubiy ( uk, Андрій Володимирович Парубій; born 31 January 1971) is a Ukrainian politician

. The groups are divided up into

sotnia Sotnia ( Ukrainian and ) was a military unit and administrative division in many Slavic countries. Sotnia, deriving back to 1948, has been used in a variety of contexts in both Ukraine and Russia to this day. It is a helpful word to create sh ...

s, or 'hundreds', which have been described as a "force that is providing the tip of the spear in the violent showdown with government security forces". The sotni take their name from a traditional form of

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

s cavalry formation, and were also used in the

Ukrainian People's Army The Ukrainian People's Army ( uk, Армія Української Народної Республіки), also known as the Ukrainian National Army (UNA) or as a derogatory term of Russian and Soviet historiography Petliurovtsy ( uk, Пет ...

Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( uk, Українська повстанська армія, УПА, translit=Ukrayins'ka povstans'ka armiia, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During Worl ...

Ukrainian National Army Ukrainian National Army (UNA) was a World War II Ukrainian military group, created on March 17, 1945 in Weimar, Germany, and subordinate to Ukrainian National Committee. The army, formed on April 15, 1945, and commanded by General Pavlo Shandru ...

etc. Along with Mr. Parubiy's force, there are some "independent" divisions of enforcers (some of them are also referred to as sotnias and even self-defence), like the security of the Trade Unions Building until 2 January 2014, Narnia and Vikings from

Kyiv City State Administration Kyiv City State Administration ( uk, Київська міська державна адміністрація, translit=Kyivska miska derzhavna administratsiia), is the national-level branch of the Government of Ukraine that administers Kyiv, t ...

, Volodymr Parasyuk's sotnia from Conservatory building, etc. Mr. Parubiy officially asked such divisions to not call themselves Self-defence. Pravy Sektor coordinates its actions with Self-defence and is formally a 23rd sotnia, although already had hundreds of members at the time of registering as a sotnia. Second sotnia (staffed by Svoboda's members) tends to dissociate itself from "sotnias of self-defence of Maidan". Some Russian citizens sympathetic to the opposition joined the protest movement as part of the

Misanthropic Division The Misanthropic Division, also known as Division Phoenix since 2016, is an international neo-Nazi group based in Ukraine which has been described as a paramilitary organization, or as a movement. They originated in 2014 to take part in the Eurom ...

, many of them later becoming Ukrainian citizens.

Casualties

Deaths

The first of the major casualties occurred on the

Day of Unity of Ukraine The Unification Act ( uk, Акт Злуки, translit=Akt Zluky, , "Act Zluky" or uk, Велика Злука, translit=Velyka Zluka, label=none, ) was an agreement signed on 22 January 1919, by the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukr ...

, 22 January 2014. Four people permanently lost their vision, and one man died by falling from a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

. The circumstances of his death are unclear. At least five more people were confirmed dead during the clashes on 22 January, and four people perished from gunshot wounds. Medics confirmed bullet wounds to be from firearms such as a

Dragunov sniper rifle The SVD (russian: Сна́йперская Винто́вка систе́мы Драгуно́ва образца́ 1963 года, lit=Sniper Rifle, System of Dragunov, Model of the Year 1963, translit=Snáyperskaya Vintóvka sistém'y Dragunóv ...

(7.62 mm) and possibly a Makarov handgun (9 mm) in the deaths of Nihoyan and Zhyznevskyi, respectively. There are photos of Berkut police forces utilising shotguns (such as the RPC Fort), and reporters verified the presence of shotgun casings littering the ground. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office confirmed two deaths from gunshot wounds in Kyiv protests. "We are pursuing several lines of inquiry into these murders, including hat they may have been committedby Berkut pecial police unitofficers," Vitali Sakal, first deputy chief of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's Main Investigative Directorate told a press conference in Kyiv on Friday. "It was established that the weapons and cartridges that were used to commit these killings are hunting cartridges. Such is the conclusion of forensic experts. Most likely, it was a smoothbore firearm. I want to stress that the cartridges which were used to commit the murders were not used by, and are not in use of, the police. They have no such cartridges", said first deputy chief of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's Main Investigative Directorate. The MVS has not ruled out that Berkut officers committed the killings. Ukrainian Red Cross Society volunteers administering first aid to a wounded Euromaidan protester

Ukrainian Red Cross Society volunteers administering first aid to a wounded Euromaidan protester

On 31 January it was discovered that 26 unidentified, unclaimed bodies remained in the Kyiv central morgue, 14 of which were from January alone.In the Central Morgue of Kiev – 26 unidentified bodies
''

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukra ...

''. 31 January 2014 Journalists revealed that a mass burial was planned on 4 February 2014. The Kyiv city administration followed on the announcement with its own statement informing that there were 14 such bodies, 5 from January. On 18 and 19 February, at least 26 people were killed in clashes with police, and a self-defense soldier from Maidan was found dead. Journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy was murdered by pro-government

and shot in the chest when they attacked his taxi. It was announced that an additional 40–50 people died in the fire that engulfed the Trade Union building after police attempted to seize it the night before. On 20 February, gunfire killed 60 people, according to an opposition medical service. At the onset of the conflict, more than 100 people were killed and 2,500 injured in clashes with security forces. The death toll included at least 13 police officers, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Investigation into shooters/snipers

Hrushevskoho Street riot shootings

During the

2014 Hrushevskoho Street riots In response to anti-protest laws in Ukraine (announced on 16 January 2014 and enacted on 21 January 2014), a standoff between protesters and police began on 19 January 2014 that was precipitated by a series of riots in central Kyiv on Hrushe ...

of 22–25 January, 3 protesters were killed by firearms. Oleh Tatarov, deputy chief of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's Main Investigative Directorate under Yanukovych, claimed in January that " e theory we are looking at is the killing was by unidentified persons. This is an official theory, and the unidentified persons could be various people, a whole host of them... It could have been motivated by disruptive behavior, or with the aim of provocation." He then claimed the cartridges and weapons used in the shootings were not police issue. Forensics experts found that protesters were killed with both buckshot and rifle bullets, while medics confirmed the bullet wounds to be from firearms such as the Dragunov sniper rifle (7.62×54 mmR) and possibly 9×18 mm Makarov cartridges. A report published on 25 January by Armament Research Services, a speciality arms and munitions consultancy in Perth, Australia, stated that the mysterious cufflink-shaped projectiles presumably fired by riot police on Hrushevskoho Street at protesters during clashes were not meant for riot control, but for stopping vehicles, busting through doors and piercing armour. The bullets were reported to be special armour-piercing 12-gauge shotgun projectiles, likely developed and produced by the ''Spetstekhnika'' (Specialized Equipment) design bureau, a facility located in Kyiv and associated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On 31 January 2014, Vitali Sakal, first deputy chief of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's Main Investigative Directorate told a press conference that " are pursuing several lines of inquiry into these murders, including hat they may have been committedby Berkut (special police unit) officers." On 10 October 2014

published a report about their examination of Ukraine's probes into the Maidan shootings. They have uncovered "serious flaws" in the case against

Berkut (special police force) ) , image = Cпеціальний підрозділ міліції громадської безпеки «Беркут».png , image_size = 200 , caption = Former emblem of the Berkut (1992–2014) , dates = 1992–present , country = ...

officers arrested by the new Ukrainian government and charged with murder of 39 unarmed protesters. For example, as Reuters' own investigation found out, the senior among arrested officers was missing his right hand after an accident 6 years ago. This dismissed main evidence presented by prosecutor, a photograph of a man holding his rifle with both hands. Other "flaws" according to Reuters included the fact that no one was charged with killing policemen and that the prosecutors and the minister in charge of the investigation all took part in the uprising. For example, the

General Prosecutor of Ukraine The prosecutor general of Ukraine (also procurator general of Ukraine, uk, Генеральний прокурор України) heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General ( uk, Офіс ...

Vitaly Yarema Vitaly Hryhorovych Yarema ( uk, Віталій Григорович Ярема, born 14 October 1963) is a Ukrainian politician, law enforcement expert who was General Prosecutor of Ukraine from 19 June 2014 until 10 February 2015.revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

of 18–23 February that saw over 100 killed in gunfire, the government's new health minister, Oleh Musiy, a doctor who helped oversee medical treatment for casualties during the protests, suggested to the

that the similarity of bullet wounds suffered by opposition victims and police indicates the shooters were trying to stoke tensions on both sides and spark even greater violence, with the goal of toppling Yanukovych and justifying a Russian invasion. "I think it wasn't just a part of the old regime that (plotted the provocation), but it was also the work of Russian special forces who served and maintained the ideology of the (old) regime," he said, citing forensic evidence.

Hennadiy Moskal Hennadiy Hennadiyovych Moskal ( uk, Геннадій Геннадійович Москаль; born 11 December 1950) is a Ukrainian politician and the former governor of Zakarpattia Oblast, serving from 2015 to 2019.

, a former deputy head of Ukraine's main security agency, the SBU, and of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, suggested in an interview published in the Ukrainian newspaper ''

Dzerkalo Tyzhnia ''Dzerkalo Tyzhnia'' ( ua, Дзеркало тижня), usually referred to in English as the ''Mirror Weekly'', was one of Ukraine's most influential analytical weekly-publisher newspapers, founded in 1994. (in Russian and Ukrainian), 6 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014 The''

International Business Times The ''International Business Times'' is an American online news publication that publishes five national editions in four languages. The publication, sometimes called ''IBTimes'' or ''IBT'', offers news, opinion and editorial commentary on busi ...

'' reported that a telephone call between Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet and

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP) is the chief co-ordinator and representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) within the European Union (EU). The position is currently held ...

Catherine Ashton Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, (born 20 March 1956), is a British Labour politician who served as the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and First Vice President of the Europe ...

had been intercepted in which Paet stated that a doctor named Olga stated that victims from both sides were shot by the same snipers and that Olga had photos of the shooting victims with the same "handwriting". Paet said he found it "really disturbing that now the new coalition oesn'twant to investigate what exactly happened", and that "there is a stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers it was not Yanukovych, it was somebody from the new coalition". However, Paet later denied that he implicated the opposition in anything as he was merely relaying rumours he had heard without giving any assessment of their veracity, while acknowledging that the phone call was genuine. A spokesperson for the US state department described the leaking of the call as an example of "Russian tradecraft". Olga Bogomolets, the doctor, who allegedly claimed that protesters and Berkut troops came under fire from the same source, said she had not told Paet that policemen and protesters had been killed in the same manner, that she did not imply that the opposition was implicated in the killings, and that the government informed her that an investigation had been started. German TV ARD investigation met one of the few doctors that treated the wounded of both sides. "The wounded that we treated, all had the same type of bullet wounds. The bullets were all identical. That's all I can say. In the bodies of the wounded militia, and the opposition." Lawyers representing relatives of the dead complained: "We haven't been informed of the type of weapons, we have no access to the official reports, and to the operation schedules. We have no documents to the investigation, state prosecutors won't show us any papers." On 12 March 2014, Interior Minister Avakov has stated that the conflict was provoked by a 'non-Ukrainian' third party, and that an investigation was ongoing. On 31 March 2014, ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'' published photos and videos which appear to show that the snipers were members of the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) "anti-terrorist" Alfa Team unit, who had been trained in Russia. On 2 April 2014, law enforcement authorities announced in a press conference they had detained nine suspects in the 18–20 February shootings of Euromaidan activists, acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleh Makhnytsky reported. Among the detainees was the leader of the sniper squad. All of the detained are officers of the Kyiv City Berkut unit, and verified the involvement of the SBU's Alfa Group in the shootings. Officials also reported that they plan to detain additional suspects in the Maidan shootings in the near future, and stressed that the investigation is ongoing, but hindered by the outgoing regime's destruction of all documents and evidence. Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed that Viktor Yanukovych gave the order to fire on protesters on 20 February. During the press conference, Ukraine's interior minister, chief prosecutor and top security chief implicated more than 30 Russian FSB agents in the crackdown on protesters, who in addition to taking part in the planning, flew large quantities of explosives into an airport near Kyiv. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, the interim head of Ukraine's SBU state security agency, said the agents were stationed in Kyiv during the entire Euromaidan protests, were provided with "state telecommunications" while residing at an SBU compound, and in regular contact with Ukrainian security officials. "We have substantiated grounds to consider that these very groups which were located at an SBU training ground took part in the planning and execution of activities of this so-called antiterrorist operation," said Nalyvaichenko. Investigators, he said, had established that Yanukovych's SBU chief Oleksandr Yakymenko, who had fled the country, had received reports from FSB agents while they were stationed in Ukraine, and that Yakymenko held several briefings with the agents. Russia's Federal Security Bureau rejected the comments as "groundless accusations" and otherwise refused to comment. In 2015 BBC published a story based on an interview with an anonymous sniper who said he was firing at anti-riot police from Conservatory (music academy) building on the morning of 20 January 2014. The sniper said he was recruited by a "former military" claiming to be working for Euromaidan leadership. These morning shots are said to have provoked return fire from police snipers that resulted in many deaths.

Andriy Shevchenko Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko, or Andrii Mykolaiovych Shevchenko ( uk, Андрій Миколайович Шевченко, ; born 29 September 1976) is a Ukrainian football manager, a former professional football player and a former politic ...

from Euromaidan leadership said he received calls from anti-riot police command reporting that his people are being shot by sniper bullets from the areas controlled by the protesters. Another Euromaidan leader,

Andriy Parubiy Andriy Volodymyrovych Parubiy ( uk, Андрій Володимирович Парубій; born 31 January 1971) is a Ukrainian politician

, said his team searched the Conservatory and found no snipers. He confirmed that many victims on both sides were shot by snipers, but they were shooting from other, taller buildings surrounding the Conservatory and was convinced they were snipers controlled by Russia.

Press and medics injured by police attacks

A number of attacks by law enforcement agents on members of the media and

medical personnel A medic is a person involved in medicine such as a medical doctor, medical student, paramedic or an emergency medical responder. Among physicians in the UK, the term "medic" indicates someone who has followed a "medical" career path in postgrad ...

have been reported. Some 40 journalists were injured during the staged assault at Bankova Street on 1 December 2013. At least 42 more journalists were victims of police attacks at Hrushevskoho Street on 22 January 2014. On 22 January 2014, Television News Service (TSN) reported that journalists started to remove their identifying uniform (vests and helmets), as they were being targeted, sometimes on purpose, sometimes accidentally. Since 21 November 2013, a total of 136 journalists have been injured. * On 21 January 2014, 26 journalists were injured, with at least two badly injured by police stun grenades; 2 others were arrested by police. * On 22 January, a correspondent of Reuters, Vasiliy Fedosenko, was intentionally shot in the head by a marksman with rubber ammunition during clashes at Hrushevskoho Street. Later, a journalist of

Espresso TV Espreso TV ( uk, Еспресо TV) is an Internet television station in Ukraine that started to operate in November 2013. Espreso TV enabled the Euromaidan Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ...

Dmytro Dvoychenkov was kidnapped, beaten and taken to an unknown location, but later a parliamentarian was informed that he was finally released. * On 24 January, President Yanukovych ordered the release of all journalists from custody. * On 31 January, a video from 22 January 2014 was published that showed policemen in Berkut uniforms intentionally firing at a medic who raised his hands. * On 18 February 2014, American photojournalist Mark Estabrook was injured by Berkut forces, who threw two separate concussion grenades at him just inside the gate at the Hrushevskoho Street barricade, with shrapnel hitting him in the shoulder and lower leg. He continued bleeding all the way to Cologne, Germany for surgery. He was informed upon his arrival in Maidan to stay away from the hospitals in Kyiv to avoid Yanukovych's Berkut police capture (February 2014)

Impact

Support for Euromaidan in Ukraine

Klitschko Tyahnybok Yatsenyuk Dec 8 2013

According to a 4 to 9 December 2013 study"EUROMAYDAN – 2013"
, Research & Branding Group (10 December 2013) by Research & Branding Group, 49% of all Ukrainians supported Euromaidan and 45% had the opposite opinion. It was mostly supported in Western (84%) and

Central Ukraine Central Ukraine ( uk, Центральна Україна, ''Tsentralna Ukraina'') consists of historical regions of left-bank Ukraine and right-bank Ukraine that reference to the Dnipro River. It is situated away from the Black Sea Littoral ...

(66%). A third (33%) of residents of South Ukraine and 13% of residents of Eastern Ukraine supported Euromaidan as well. The percentage of people who do not support the protesters was 81% in East Ukraine, 60% in

South Ukraine Southern Ukraine ( uk, південна Україна, translit=pivdenna Ukrayina) or south Ukraine refers, generally, to the oblasts in the south of Ukraine. The territory usually corresponds with the Soviet economical district, the Southern E ...

, in

27% and in Western Ukraine 11%. Polls have shown that two-thirds of Kyivans support the ongoing protests. A poll conducted by the Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Fund and Razumkov Center, between 20 and 24 December, showed that over 50% of Ukrainians supported the Euromaidan protests, while 42% opposed it. Another Research & Branding Group survey (conducted from 23 to 27 December) showed that 45% of Ukrainians supported Euromaidan, while 50% did not.Half of Ukrainians don't support Kyiv Euromaidan, R&B poll

(30 December 2013) 43% of those polled thought that Euromaidan's consequences "sooner could be negative", while 31% of the respondents thought the opposite; 17% believed that Euromaidan would bring no negative consequences. An Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation survey of protesters conducted 7 and 8 December 2013 found that 92% of those who came to Kyiv from across Ukraine came on their own initiative, 6.3% was organised by a public movement, and 1.8% were organised by a party. 70% Said they came to protest the police brutality of 30 November, and 54% to protest in support of the European Union Association Agreement signing. Among their demands, 82% wanted detained protesters freed, 80% wanted the government to resign, and 75% want president Yanukovych to resign and for snap elections. The poll showed that 49.8% of the protesters are residents of Kyiv and 50.2% came from elsewhere in Ukraine. 38% Of the protesters are aged between 15 and 29, 49% are aged between 30 and 54, and 13% are 55 or older. A total of 57.2% of the protesters are men. In the eastern regions of

and

Public opinion about Association Agreement

According to a 4 to 9 December 2013 study by Research & Branding Group 46% of Ukrainians supported the integration of the country into EU, and 36% into the

. Most support for EU integration could be found in West (81%) and in Central (56%) Ukraine; 30% of residents of South Ukraine and 18% of residents of Eastern Ukraine supported the integration with EU as well. Integration with the Customs Union was supported by 61% of East Ukraine and 54% of South Ukraine and also by 22% of Central and 7% of Western Ukraine. According to a 7 to 17 December 2013 poll by the

Sociological group "RATING" Rating ( uk, Рейтинг), or fully the Sociological group "Rating" ( uk, Соціологічнна група «Рейтинг»), is a Ukrainian independent, non-governmental research organization, that specializes in conducting all types ...

, 49.1% of respondents would vote for Ukraine's accession to the European Union in a referendum, and 29.6% would vote against the motion. Meanwhile, 32.5% of respondents would vote for Ukraine's accession to the

, and 41.9% would vote against.The socio-political situation in Ukraine: December 2013

(25 December 2013)

Political impact

During the annual

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

meeting at the end of January 2014 in Davos ( Switzerland) Ukrainian Prime Minister

received no invitations to the main events; according to the ''

s Gideon Rachman because the Ukrainian government was blamed for the violence of the

. A telephone call was leaked of US diplomat

Victoria Nuland Victoria Jane Nuland (born July 1, 1961) is an American diplomat currently serving as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Nuland, a former member of the foreign service, served as the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eu ...

speaking to the US Ambassador to Ukraine,

Geoffrey Pyatt Geoffrey Ross Pyatt (born November 16, 1963)Welcome, Mr. Pyatt!
, ''

about the future of the country, in which she said that Klitschko should not be in the future government, and expressed her preference for

Arseniy Yatsenyuk Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk ( uk, Арсеній Петрович Яценюк ; born 22 May 1974) is a Ukrainian politician, economist and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine twice – from 27 February 2014 to 27 November 2014 and f ...

, who became interim Prime Minister. She also casually stated "fuck the EU." German chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Op ...

said she deemed Nuland's comment "completely unacceptable". Commenting on the situation afterwards, State Department spokeswoman

Jen Psaki Jennifer Rene Psaki (; born c. 1978) is an American television political analyst who currently works for MSNBC. Previously, she was a political advisor who served under both the Obama and Biden administrations. Immediately prior to working ...

said that Nuland had apologized to her EU counterparts while

spokesman

Jay Carney James Ferguson 'Jay' Carney (born May 22, 1965) is an American public relations officer, political advisor and journalist who has served as Amazon's Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs from 2015 to 2022, and the United States Wh ...

alleged that because it had been "tweeted out by the Russian government, it says something about Russia's role". In February 2014 ''IBTimes'' reported, "if Svoboda and other far-right groups gain greater exposure through their involvement in the protests, there are fears they could gain more sympathy and support from a public grown weary of political corruption and Russian influence on Ukraine." In the following late October

2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Snap elections to the Verkhovna Rada took place on 26 October 2014. Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine, had pressed for early parliamentary elections since his victory in the presidential election in May.2012 parliamentary election.Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament
,

Ukrainian Television and Radio UTR ( uk, Українське телебачення і радіомовлення; Ukrayins'ke telebachennya i radiomovlennya) is the Ukrainian state owned TV channel targeting a foreign Ukrainian-speaking audience. Programming is provided with ...

(8 November 2014)
People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections – CEC
,

(8 November 2014)
Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament – CEC

(8 November 2014)After the parliamentary elections in Ukraine: a tough victory for the Party of Regions
, Centre for Eastern Studies (7 November 2012) The other main far-right party

Right Sector Right Sector ( uk, Пра́вий се́ктор, ''Pravyi sektor'') is a right-wing to far-right, Ukrainian nationalist organization. It originated in November 2013 as a right-wing, paramilitary confederation of several radical nationalist org ...

won 1 seat (of the 450 seats in the

Ukrainian parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

) in the same 2014 election. From 27 February 2014 till 12 November 2014 three members of Svoboda did hold positions in Ukraine's government.Svoboda party members in Ukrainian government resign – Deputy Premier Sych

(12 November 2014) On 21 February, after negotiations between President Yanukovych and representatives of opposition with mediation of representatives of the European Union and Russia, the agreement "About settlement of political crisis in Ukraine" was signed. The agreement provided return to the constitution of 2004, that is to a parliamentary presidential government, carrying out early elections of the president until the end of 2014 and formation of "the government of national trust". The Verkhovna Rada adopted the law on release of all detainees during protest actions. Divisions of "Golden eagle" and internal troops left the center of Kyiv. On 21 February, at the public announcement leaders of parliamentary opposition of conditions of the signed Agreement, representatives of "Right Sector" declared that they don't accept the gradualness of political reforms stipulated in the document, and demanded immediate resignation of the president Yanukovych—otherwise they intended to go for storm of Presidential Administration and Verkhovna Rada. On the night of 22 February activists of Euromaidan seized the government quarter left by law enforcement authorities and made a number of new demands—in particular, immediate resignation of the president Yanukovych. Earlier that day, they stormed into Yanukovych's mansion. On 23 February 2014, following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, the Rada passed a bill that would have altered the law on languages of minorities, including Russian. The bill would have made Ukrainian the sole state language at all levels. However, on the next week 1 March, President Turchynov vetoed the bill. Following the Protests, Euromaidan activists mobilized toward state transformation. Activists began to, "promote reforms, drafting and advocating for legislative proposals and monitoring reform implementations." Civic Activists stepped into peculiar roles (such as the armed defense and hard security provision), which was considered unusual at the time. Since the conclusion of the Euromaidan protests Civil Society in Ukraine has become a vibrant and active political actor, however civil society does not appear to have the capacity to truly hold government to account.

Human rights impact

In the wake of the 2014 Euromaidan, Eduard Dolinsky, executive director of the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Jewish Committee, expressed concern over the rise of antisemitism in Ukraine in an opinion for the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, citing the social acceptance of previously marginal far-right groups and the government's policy of

historical negationism Historical negationism, also called denialism, is falsification or distortion of the historical record. It should not be conflated with '' historical revisionism'', a broader term that extends to newly evidenced, fairly reasoned academic reinter ...

with regard to antisemitic views of, and collaboration in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

by Ukrainian nationalists. Dolinsky also pointed out that Ukrainian Jews overwhelmingly supported and often participated in the Euromaidan protests.

Economic impact

The Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, asked for 20 billion Euros (US$27 billion) in loans and aid from the EU The EU was willing to offer 610 million euros (838 million US) in loans, however Russia was willing to offer 15 billion US in loans. Russia also offered Ukraine cheaper gas prices. As a condition for the loans, the EU required major changes to the regulations and laws in Ukraine. Russia did not.

Moody's Investors Service Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides internation ...

reported on 4 December 2013 "As a consequence of the severity of the protests, demand for foreign currency is likely to rise" and noted that this was another blow to Ukraine's already poor

solvency Solvency, in finance or business, is the degree to which the current assets of an individual or entity exceed the current liabilities of that individual or entity. Solvency can also be described as the ability of a corporation to meet its long-t ...

. First deputy Prime Minister

Serhiy Arbuzov Serhiy Hennadiyovych Arbuzov ( uk, Сергій Геннадійович Арбузов, russian: Сергей Геннадьевич Арбузов, translit=Sergey Gennadyevich Arbuzov; born 24 March 1976) is a Ukrainian former banker and poli ...

stated on 7 December Ukraine risked a

default Default may refer to: Law * Default (law), the failure to do something required by law ** Default (finance), failure to satisfy the terms of a loan obligation or failure to pay back a loan ** Default judgment, a binding judgment in favor of ei ...

if it failed to raise $10 billion "I asked for a loan to support us, and Europe he EUagreed, but a mistake was made – we failed to put it on paper."Ukraine needs $10 bln to avoid default – deputy PM

(7 December 2013) Petro Poroshenko addresses Euromaidan

On 3 December, Azarov warned that Ukraine might not be able to fulfill its natural gas contracts with Russia.Ukraine might not be able to fulfill gas contracts with Russia, says Ukrainian premier

(3 December 2013) And he blamed the deal on restoring gas supplies of 18 January 2009 for this. On 5 December, Prime Minister

stated that "money to finance the payment of pensions, wages, social payments, support of the operation of the housing and utility sector and medical institutions do not appear due to unrest in the streets" and he added that authorities were doing everything possible to ensure the timely financing of them. Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Natalia Korolevska stated on 2 January 2014 that these January 2014 payments would begin according to schedule. On 11 December, the second Azarov Government postponed social payments due to "the temporarily blocking of the government". The same day

commented (when talking about Euromaidan) "The crisis has added to the financial hardship of a country on the brink of bankruptcy" and added that (at the time) investors thought it more likely than not that Ukraine would default over the next five years (since it then cost Ukraine over US$1 million a year to insure $10 million in state debt).

Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings Inc. is an American credit rating agency and is one of the " Big Three credit rating agencies", the other two being Moody's and Standard & Poor's. It is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations ( NRS ...

reported on 16 December that the (political) "standoff" had led to "greater the risk that political uncertainty will raise demand for foreign currency, causing additional reserve losses and increasing the risk of disorderly currency movement". It also added "Interest rates rose sharply as the National Bank sought to tighten hryvnia liquidity."Fitch: Ukraine protests increase pressure on credit profile

(16 December 2013) First Deputy Finance Minister

Anatoliy Miarkovsky Anatoly (russian: Анато́лий, Anatólij , uk, Анато́лій, Anatólij ) is a common Russian and Ukrainian male given name, derived from the Greek name ''Anatolios'', meaning "sunrise." Other common Russian transliterations are Ana ...

stated on 17 December the Ukrainian

government budget deficit The government budget balance, also alternatively referred to as general government balance, public budget balance, or public fiscal balance, is the overall difference between government revenues and spending. A positive balance is called a '' ...

in 2014 could amount to about 3% with a "plus or minus" deviation of 0.5%. On 18 December, the day after an economical agreement with Russia was signed, Prime Minister

stated, "Nothing is threatening stability of the financial-economic situation in Ukraine now. Not a single economic factor." However,

reported that the deal "will not fix Ukraine's deeper economic problems" in an article titled "Russian bailout masks Ukraine's economic mess". On 21 January 2014, the

claimed that protests in Kyiv had so far caused the city more than 2 million US dollars worth of damage. It intended to claim compensation for damage caused by all demonstrators, regardless of their political affiliation.Protests cause multi-mln-USD damage to Ukrainian capital: official

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

(21 January 2014) On 5 February 2014, the hryvnia fell to a five-year low against the US dollar. On 21 February 2014,

Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is co ...

cut Ukraine's credit rating to CCC; adding that the country risked default without "significantly favourable changes". Standard & Poor's analysts believed the compromise deal of the same day between President Yanukovych and the opposition made it "less likely Ukraine would receive desperately needed Russian aid, thereby increasing the risk of default on its debts".

Social impact

In Kyiv, life continued "as normal" outside the "protest zone" (namely

). Before the Euromaidan demonstrations happened, Ukrainians did not have a strong and unified understanding of what it meant to be Ukrainian. There was confusion on whether a person should be considered Ukrainian on a civic or ethnographic basis. Most citizens of Ukraine during the Euromaidan perceived the protests as a battle against the regime. Therefore, the social impact that Euromaidan had on Ukrainians is a stronger sense of national identity and unity. Results from a survey shows that the people who identified themselves as Ukrainian after the Euromaidan grew by 10% compared to the survey conducted before the protests. "Euromaidan" was named

Word of the Year The word(s) of the year, sometimes capitalized as "Word(s) of the Year" and abbreviated "WOTY" (or "WotY"), refers to any of various assessments as to the most important word(s) or expression(s) in the public sphere during a specific year. The Ge ...

for 2013 by

modern Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state langu ...

and slang dictionary Myslovo, and the most popular

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

in Russia by web analytics company Public.ru.

Cultural impact

According to a representative of the Kyiv History Museum, its collection in the Ukrainian House on the night of 18–19 February, after it was recaptured by the police from the protesters. Eyewitnesses report seeing the police forces plundering and destroying the museum's property.

Music of Maidan

Leading Ukrainian performers sang the song "Brat za Brata" ( en, "Brother for Brother") by Kozak System to support protesters. The song was one of the unofficial anthems of Euromaidan. Ukrainian-Polish band Taraka came up with a song dedicated to "Euromaidan" "Podaj Rękę Ukrainie" (Give a Hand to Ukraine). The song uses the first several words of the National anthem of Ukraine "Ukraine has not yet died". Among other tunes, some remakes of the Ukrainian folk song "Aflame the pine was on fire" appeared ( uk, Горіла сосна, палала). The Ukrainian band Skriabin created a song dedicated to the revolutionary days of Maidan. Another native of Kyiv dedicated a song to

DJ Rudy Paulenko A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...

created a track inspired by events on Maidan called "The Battle at Maidan".

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

ian rock band Lyapis Trubetskoy's song "Warriors of Light" (''Voiny Svieta'') was one of the unofficial anthems of Maidan.

Films on Maidan

A compilation of short films about the 2013 revolution named "Babylon'13" was created. Polish and Ukrainian activists created a short film, "Happy Kyiv", editing it with the

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom h ...

hit "

Happy Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia. Sinc ...

" and some shoots of "Babylon'13". On 5 February 2014, a group of activist cinematographers initiated a series of films about the people of Euromaidan. The American filmmaker John Beck Hofmann made the film
Maidan Massacre
', about the sniper shootings. It premiered at the Siena International Film Festival, receiving the Audience Award. In 2014 Belarusian-Ukrainian filmmaker

Sergei Loznitsa Sergei Vladimirovich Loznitsa ( be, Сяргей Уладзіміравіч Лазніца, russian: Сергей Владимирович Лозница, uk, Сергій Володимирович Лозниця; born 5 September 1964) is a Uk ...

released the documentary '' Maidan''. It was filmed by several cameramen instructed by Loznitsa during the revolution in 2013 and 2014 and depicts different aspects, from peaceful rallies to the bloody clashes between police and protesters. In 2015 Netflix released the documentary '' Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom'' about the Euromaidan protests. The documentary shows the protests from the start until the resignation of Viktor Yanukovych. The movie won the Grolsch People's Choice Documentary Award at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2016 the documentary '' Ukraine on Fire'' premiered at the

Taormina Film Fest Taormina Film Fest (TFF) is a film festival that began in 1955 under the name Rassegna Cinematografica Internazionale di Messina e Taormina. The exhibition, which moved permanently to Taormina in 1971, has hosted over the years many stars of inter ...

. The central thesis of the film is that the events that led to the flight of Yanukovych in February 2014 were a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, ...

led by the USA.

Art of Maidan

Some photo correspondents created numerous unique pictures of everyday life at Maidan. Some artists expressed their solidarity with Maidan. Theatre While many Ukrainian playwrights and directors had trained and worked in Russia during the 1990s and 2000s, for lack of opportunity in their home country, an increasing number of them - such as Natalia Vorozhbit and Maksim Kyrochkin - decided to return to Ukraine after the Euromaidan, to contribute to an emerging vibrant field of new drama, or Ukrainian New Drama. There was also a noticeable shift towards writing in Ukrainian after 2014, whereas some bilingual Ukrainian dramatists had used Russian prior to 2014 in order to serve a greater audience base. Vorozhbit wrote a highly significant play about the Euromaidan, ''The Maidan Diaries'', which opened at the Franko National Theatre (one of Ukraine's two national theatres; Franko is the Ukrainian language national theatre).

Sport

The

2013–14 UEFA Europa League The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title. The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevilla and Benfica at th ...

Round of 32 match of 20 February 2014 between FC Dynamo Kyiv and

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the S ...

was moved by

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs foo ...

from

Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex The Olympic National Sports Complex (also known as Olympic Stadium; uk, Національний спортивний комплекс "Олімпійський", translit=Natsionalnyi sportyvnyi kompleks "Olimpiiskyi") is a multi-use sports ...

to the

GSP Stadium Gymnastic Club "The Pancyprians" Stadium (GSP Stadium) ( el, Στάδιο Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος "Τα Παγκύπρια") is a football stadium in Strovolos, Nicosia District, Cyprus. Although small by international standard ...

in Nicosia,

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

, "due to the security situation in the Ukrainian capital". On 19 February, the Ukrainian athletes competing in the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games (russian: XXII Олимпийские зимние игры, XXII Olimpiyskiye zimniye igry) and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (russian: Сочи 2014), was an international ...

asked for and were refused permission by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

(IOC) to wear black arm bands to honour those killed in the violent clashes in Kyiv.Hockey heartache for hosts, Ukraine violence shocks Games

(19 February 2014) IOC president

Thomas Bach Thomas Bach (born 29 December 1953) is a German lawyer, former Olympic foil fencer and Olympic gold medalist, serving as the ninth and current president of the International Olympic Committee since 10 September 2013. He is also a former me ...

offered his condolences "to those who have lost loved ones in these tragic events". On 19 February 2014,

alpine skier Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether fo ...

Bohdana Matsotska Bohdana Olehivna Matsotska ( uk, Богдана Олегівна Мацьоцька, also spelled Bogdana, born August 27, 1989) is an alpine skier from Ukraine. She competed for Ukraine at the 2010 Winter Olympics and was to compete for Ukraine ...

refused to further participate in the

in protest against the violent clashes in

.Ukrainian Olympic alpine skier quits Sochi, blames Yanukovych for deaths on EuroMaidan
''

'' (19 February 2014) She and her father posted a message on

stating "In solidarity with the fighters on the barricades of the Maidan, and as a protest against the criminal actions made towards the protesters, the irresponsibility of the president and his lackey government, we refuse further performance at the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014." On 4 March 2014, the

2013–14 Eurocup Basketball The 2013–14 Eurocup Basketball season was the 12th edition of Europe's second-tier level transnational competition for men's professional basketball clubs, the EuroCup. The EuroCup is the European-wide league level that is one level below the ...

Round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

game between BC Budivelnyk Kyiv and JSF Nanterre was moved to Žalgiris Arena in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Tra ...

, Lithuania. On 5 March 2014, another

game between

Khimik Yuzhny Khimik Yuzhne ( uk, Хімік Южне) is a Ukrainian professional basketball club that is based in Yuzhne. The club plays in the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague. In 2006, the club reached the final of the EuroCup Challenge, where they were defe ...

and Aykon TED Ankara was moved to Abdi Ipekci Arena in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Trends and symbolism

A chant that was commonly chanted among protesters was “Slava Ukraini! Heroiam slava!” - " Glory to Ukraine, Glory to Heroes!" The chant has extended beyond Ukrainians and has been used by

and

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

. The red-and-black battle flag of the

(UPA) is another popular symbol among protesters, and the wartime insurgents have acted as a large inspiration for Euromaidan protesters. Serhy Yekelchyk of the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

says the use of UPA imagery and slogans was more of a potent symbol of protest against the current government and Russia rather than adulation for the insurgents themselves, explaining "The reason for the sudden prominence of PA symbolismin Kyiv is that it is the strongest possible expression of protest against the pro-Russian orientation of the current government." The colours of the flag symbolise Ukrainian red blood spilled on Ukrainian black earth.

Reactions

In a poll published on 24 February 2014 by the state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Center, only 15% of those Russians polled said 'yes' to the question: "Should Russia react to the overthrow of the legally elected authorities in Ukraine?"

Legal hearings and investigation

Investigation about Euromaidan was ongoing since December 2013 following the initial dispersal of student gathering on the night of 30 November. On 13 December 2013 the President

and government officials announced that three high-ranking officials will be brought to justice. The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine questioned a chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov on 13 December and a Security Council secretary Andriy Klyuev on 16 December. The announcement about ongoing investigation became public at the so-called "round table" negotiations initiated by former Ukrainian President

Leonid Kravchuk Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk ( uk, Леонід Макарович Кравчук; 10 January 1934 – 10 May 2022) was a Ukrainian politician and the first president of Ukraine, serving from 5 December 1991 until 19 July 1994. In 1992, he signed ...

. On 14 December, both Sivkovych and Popov were officially temporarily relieved of their duties until conclusion of the investigation. On 17 December the Prosecutor General questioned an activist Ruslana Lyzhychko who informed that beside Popov under pre-trial investigation are Sivkovych, Koriak and Fedchuk. On request of parliamentary opposition, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka read in

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

(Ukrainian parliament) a report on investigation about dispersal of protesters on 30 November. During the report the Prosecutor General acknowledged that members of public order militsiya "Berkut" "exceeded the use of force" after being provoked by protesters. Pshonka also noted that investigation has not yet determined who exactly ordered use of force. Following the PG's report, the parliamentary opposition registered a statement on creation of provisional investigation committee in regards to actions of law enforcement agencies towards peaceful protests in Kyiv. Earlier, a separate investigation was started by the

on 8 December 2013 about actions aimed at seizing state power in Ukraine. In the context of the

1 December 2013 Euromaidan riots A series of riots occurred in several locations of downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, on 1 December 2013 in response to a police crackdown on Euromaidan's protesters and journalist on the night of 30 November. The day saw the highest numbers of journalists i ...

, the Prosecutor General informed that in calls for the overthrow of the government are involved member of radical groups. During the events at Bankova, the Ukrainian militsiya managed to detained 9 people and after few days the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that it considers Ukrainian organization Bratstvo (see Dmytro Korchynsky) to be involved in instigation of disorders, while no one out of the detained were members of that organization.

Legacy

In mid-October 2014, President

stated that 21 November (Euromaidan started on 21 November 2013) will be celebrated as "Day of Dignity and Freedom".
As of February 2019, the Ukrainian government has broken ground on a new Maidan memorial that will run the length of Institutska Street, now also known as Avenue Of The Heavenly Hundred.

Outside Ukraine

On 10 January 2022

Russian President The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime m ...

claimed that the protesters of the

2022 Kazakh protests The 2022 Kazakh unrest, also known as Bloody January () or the January tragedy (), was a series of mass protests that began in Kazakhstan on 2 January 2022 after a sudden sharp increase in liquefied gas prices following the lifting of a governm ...

had used "Maidan technologies".Putin Vows to Defend Ex-Soviet Allies from ‘Color Revolutions’

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

(10 January 2022)Putin: We won't allow scenarios of so-called colour revolutions to be played out
sb.by (10 January 2022)

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

EuroMaidan
collected news and commentary at the ''

''
Webcam
on

* *: A dedicated website with hundreds of photographs taken by Mark Estabrook of the EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv. {{Authority control Revolution of Dignity 2013 in international relations 2013 in Ukraine 2013 protests 2014 in international relations 2014 in Ukraine 2014 protests 21st-century revolutions Articles containing video clips Conflicts in 2013 Conflicts in 2014 Democratization Hashtags 2010s in Kyiv Modern history of Ukraine Political history of Ukraine Political scandals in Ukraine Protests in Ukraine Revolutions in Ukraine Riots and civil disorder in Ukraine Russia–Ukraine relations Ukraine–European Union relations Ukrainian democracy movements Ukrainian nationalism Police brutality in Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych