Euromaidan
Euromaidan, or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. The protests were sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Ukraine's parliament had overwhelmingly approved of finalising the Agreement with the EU, but Russia had put pressure on Ukraine to reject it. The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of Yanukovych and the Azarov government. Protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption, abuse of power, human rights violations, and the influence of oligarchs. Transparency International named Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November caused further anger. Euromaidan was the largest democratic mass movement in Europe since 1989 and led to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.
During the uprising, Independence Square in Kyiv was a huge protest camp 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 then 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, Yanukovych and the parliamentary opposition signed an agreement on 21 February to bring about an interim unity government, constitutional reforms and early elections. Police abandoned central Kyiv that afternoon, then Yanukovych and other government ministers fled the city that evening. The next day, parliament removed Yanukovych from office and installed an interim government. The Revolution of Dignity was soon followed by the Russian annexation of Crimea and pro-Russian unrest in Eastern Ukraine, eventually escalating into the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Overview
The demonstrations began on the night of 21 November 2013, when protests erupted in the capital Kyiv. The protests were launched following the Ukrainian government's suspension of preparations for signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement in favour of closer economic relations with Russia and rejection of draft laws which would have allowed the release of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. The shift away from the European Union was preceded by a campaign of threats, insults and preemptive trade restrictions from Russia.After a few days of demonstrations, an increasing number of university students 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."
The protests continued despite heavy police presence, regular 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 demonstrating in Kyiv on the weekends of 1 and 8 December, according to Russia's opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. In the preceding weeks, protest attendance had fluctuated from 50,000 to 200,000 during organised rallies. Violent riots took place on 1 December and from 19 January through 25 January in response to police brutality and government repression. Starting 23 January, several Western Ukrainian oblast government buildings and regional councils were occupied in a revolt by Euromaidan activists. In the Russophone cities of Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk, protesters also tried to take over their local government buildings and were met with considerable resistance from both police and government supporters.
According to journalist Lecia Bushak, writing in the 18 February 2014 issue of Newsweek magazine,
EuroMaidan grown 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.
Late February marked a turning point when many members of the president's party fled or defected, causing it to lose its majority in the Verkhovna Rada, the country's national parliament. A sufficient number of opposition members remained to form the necessary quorum, allowing 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, refusing to recognise the parliament's decisions. The parliament assigned early elections for May 2014.
In early 2019, a Ukrainian court found Yanukovych guilty of treason. Yanukovych was also charged with asking Vladimir Putin to send Russian troops to invade Ukraine after he had fled the country. The charges have had little practical effect on Yanukovych, who has lived in exile in the Russian city of Rostov since fleeing Ukraine under armed guard in 2014.
Background
Name history
The term "Euromaidan" was initially used as a hashtag on Twitter after a Twitter account named Euromaidan was created on the first day of the protests. The title soon became popular across international media.The name is composed of two parts: "Euro", which is short for Europe, reflecting the pro-European aspirations of the protestors, and "maidan", referring to Maidan Nezalezhnosti, a large square in downtown 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 the Ukrainian language during the period of Ottoman Empire influence on Ukraine. 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. The term "Ukrainian Spring" was also occasionally used during the protests, echoing the term Arab Spring.
Initial causes
On 30 March 2012, the European Union and Ukraine initiated an Association Agreement; however, 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 and Yuriy Lutsenko in 2011 and 2012. In the months leading up to the protests, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych urged the parliament to adopt laws so that Ukraine would meet the EU's criteria. On 25 September 2013, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Rybak expressed confidence that parliament would pass all the laws needed to fulfil the EU's criteria since, except for the Communist Party of Ukraine, "he Verkhovna Rada has united around these bills." According to Pavlo Klimkin, one of the Ukrainian negotiators of the Association Agreement, initially "the Russians simply did not believe 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 Ukraine such that on 14 August 2013, the Russian Customs Service stopped all goods coming from Ukraine and prompted politicians and media to view the move as the start of a trade war against Ukraine to prevent the country from signing the Association Agreement with the EU. Ukrainian Industrial Policy Minister Mykhailo Korolenko reported on 18 December 2013 that the new Russian trade restrictions had caused Ukraine's exports to drop by $1.4 billion. In November 2013, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine recorded that in comparison with the same months of 2012, in 2013 industrial production in Ukraine had fallen by 4.9% in October, 5.6% in September, and 5.4% in August, with an year-total loss of 1.8% industrial output compared to 2012 levels.
On 21 November 2013, the Ukrainian government decree suspended preparations for the signing of the Association Agreement. The reason given was that in the previous months, Ukraine had experienced "a drop in industrial production and our relations with CIS countries". The government also assured, "Ukraine will resume preparing the agreement when the drop in industrial production and our relations with Commonwealth of Independent States countries are compensated by the European market." According to Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, "the extremely harsh conditions" of an International Monetary Fund loan, which included big budget cuts and a 40% increase in gas bills, had been the last argument in favour of the 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 the increase by strengthening targeted social assistance. The same day, IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine Jerome Vacher 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, where the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement was originally planned to be finalised but the agreement was not signed. Both Yanukovych and high level EU officials signalled that they wanted to sign the Association Agreement at a later date. Yanukovych later explained to his entourage the decision was the result of an exchange with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who had allegedly threatened to occupy Crimea and a sizeable part of southeastern Ukraine, including the Donbas, if he signed the EU agreement.
In an interview with American journalist Lally Weymouth for The Washington Post, Ukrainian billionaire businessman and opposition leader Petro Poroshenko stated:
On 11 December 2013, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov announced that he had asked for €20 billion in loans and financial aid to offset the cost of the EU deal. The EU was willing to offer €610 million in loans with the condition of major reforms to Ukrainian laws and regulations while Russia was willing to offer US$15 billion in loans and cheaper gas prices with no legal reform preconditions.