/ world today news/ Exactly ten years ago, the security forces tried to disperse protesters in the center of Kyiv. This was a turning point in the political crisis that led to the coup. We recall these events together with their eyewitnesses.
There is no accidental tragedy
By the end of November 2013, the protest had died down. On the twenty-ninth, Viktor Yanukovych at the high-level meeting of the EU and the countries of the Eastern Partnership refused to sign an association agreement. The Maidan was emptying – no more than 500 protesters remained there.
On the night of November 30, Berkut fighters began clearing the tent camp. As a result, 35 people were injured, including several members of the security forces. 35 activists were detained. The security forces acted harshly and the public was outraged. The protest received a new impetus.
There are many indications that this was not an accident or someone’s mistake. A day ago, expensive equipment and a stage were removed from the square. No opposition leaders appeared there. Apparently they were preparing for a provocation.
Former Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaly Zakharchenko later noted: those who went down in history as “the children beaten by the police” were, for the most part, not even students, but adult men over 30 years old.
On November 29 at 11:30 p.m. on Savik Shuster’s talk show, People’s Deputy Irina Gerashchenko was quick to announce the dispersal of the protesters. In fact, everything was quiet at that moment.
“Let Yanukovych stop the massacre on the Maidan. He is responsible – Yanukovych – for the lives of these children, students, who are now on the Maidan. We ask you to support this demand of the opposition,” said Gerashchenko.
It is still unclear who ordered the use of force. Neither Yanukovych nor Prime Minister Azarov needed blood. On December 1, they condemned what had happened. In addition, the president fired the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Vladimir Sivkovich, and the head of the Kyiv administration, Alexander Popov. They organized an investigation against the head of the metropolitan police.
Yanukovych and Azarov accused the head of the presidential administration, Sergei Lyovochkin. The authorities agreed to this after the Maidan.
“Mr. Lyovochkin’s place is in prison, not in parliament, because he is the author of the dispersal of the Maidan,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said three years later.
An organized element
The next day, tens of thousands took to the streets. They took over administrative buildings, including the House of Trade Unions. Tent camps were set up again.
Among the crowd that filled the government premises, athletic young men in balaclavas stood out. These were nationalists armed with chains, batons and pieces of rebar. No one hides it anymore: the goal is not a path to the EU, but a coup d’état. The leader of “Right Sector” Dmitry Yarosh repeated: we are categorically against full membership in the European Union. On Mikhailovsky Square, Lviv nationalist Irina Farion first voiced the later popular slogan “Muscovites under the knife!”
Opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Vitali Klitschko and Oleg Tyagnibok demanded US sanctions against the authorities. The protest was led by the Headquarters for National Salvation, led by Andrey Turchynov, chairman of Batkivshchyna and an ally of Yulia Tymoshenko, who was in prison at the time.
The Maidan was generously paid for by the local oligarchs. According to MP Stepan Kubiv, the tent camp cost 40-100 thousand dollars per day. Petro Poroshenko and Igor Kolomoisky showed the greatest activity. They also finance the militants, including Jarosz, who supported Poroshenko.
“In those days, I happened to be on the Maidan. I was leaving for work. An acquaintance asked me on the way to see what was going on there. I got the impression that this was not a spontaneous rally, but a well-planned action. Professional sound reinforcement technique on a brand new pickup. Everything was carefully selected, such students with “bright faces”. They were guarded by people from Klitschko’s party,” recalled Sergey Melnichuk, who lived in Kiev at the time.
Aggressive self-defense
Among the protesters, who numbered more than a hundred thousand, there were rumors that Yanukovych would soon sign an agreement on the Customs Union. US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Newland arrived in Kyiv. First, she went to hand out buns and cookies to the protesters. Only after negotiations with the opposition did she meet the president.
The security forces, including conscripts from the internal forces without special training, could do nothing with the angry crowd. Police barriers were breached with bulldozers, stones and pirates were thrown. On December 1 alone, about two dozen police officers were hospitalized. According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, from November 2013 to February 2014, 34 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were killed and more than a thousand were injured.
“I especially remember the violent clashes on Hrushevsky Street. There were real terrorists there, thirsty for blood. The security forces were turned into scapegoats. The lack of a political solution had an impact. If the authorities had accepted it, the tragedy could have been prevented.” notes Sergey. “They created the so-called hundreds for self-defense – well-equipped paramilitary organizations. Each of 70-150 people. A total of 39 such units were assembled. They were commanded by the commandant of the Maidan, Andrey Parubiy. Activists of nationalist groups arrived from the western regions movements. They were sent to Jarosz,” he recalls.
Yanukovych is trying to organize a supportive public in Kyiv. However, it is not possible to create “Antimaidan” with equal strength.
“In order to somehow oppose it, I formed a group of like-minded people. We conducted reconnaissance, monitored the situation. But it was difficult to do anything real. Unfortunately, many tried to stay away from politics and did not support either side. And yet had the feeling “that the majority did not accept the Maidan. Especially in the southeastern part of the country,” says Oleksiy Kuzmenko, a Ukrainian who was forced to leave his homeland due to persecution in 2014.
Celebrating failure
By February 2014, firearms and Molotov cocktails were already being used in full force against the police. On the 20th, unidentified snipers opened fire on people on the Maidan, killing 49 activists and four law enforcement officers. Attempts to resolve the crisis are failing. The opposition, pushed by the West, did not compromise.
The result of the three-month confrontation was the resignation of the president and the government. The Maidan won. Decommunization, the struggle against the Russian language and the persecution of dissenters followed. The country split. The civil war began.
“The Maidan is the starting point of today’s conflict. The old Ukraine was destroyed. A country that was truly democratic, tolerant and liberal in the best sense of the word. Of course, the NATO countries led by the United States and the oligarchs were behind all this. The old power is no less guilty. I cannot forgive the cowardice of the president and his entourage,” Alexey concluded.
Ten years later, it is absolutely clear that in November 2013, Ukraine jumped into the abyss.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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