12 years ago, Feb 18 into the early hours of Feb 19, security forces attempted to clear #IndependenceSquare, #Kyiv. They stormed the main #protest camp. 17 protesters and 5 riot police died
#Euromaidan #RevolutionOfDignity
Dear "it was a Western plot" #vatnik morons: kindly go fuck yourself. Ukrainians did it. The will of the people. How do you live with yourself, so stupid, so weak?
#Yanukovych fled
9 days later, #Putin invaded #Crimea
𝗪𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬
✧ Euromaidan ✧
Euromaidan 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 ...
#EurasianEconomicUnion #EuropeanUnion #Ukraine #Yanukovych #Euromaidan #Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan
... I was reminded of Ukraine’s 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity ( #EuroMaidan )
When the legitimacy of Viktor #Yanukovych's government collapsed following a sharp turn from the #EU and values of democracy to Russia and authoritarianism, people #revolted and creatively used everything available to them for protest.
https://kyivindependent.com/heres-why-minneapolis-reminds-me-of-what-i-once-saw-in-ukraine/
#dictatorship #fascism #TrumpIsARussianAsset #authoritarian #murder #FascistTrump #USAggression #ice #ComradeKrasnov
[2/2]
For those who at that time - like me - did not pay enough attention about how it all began:
The Fight for Ukraine: Last Days of the Revolution
... Meine Fresse, Gregor! 1: Nein, der Grund war nicht der Maidan, sondern putins imperialistischer Wahn von der Unrechtmäßigkeit einer souveränen Ukraine. 2.: Nein, es stimmt nicht, dass die Ukraine putin entzogen wurde, DENN SIE GEHÖRT IHM NICHT UND HAT IHM NIE GEHÖRT, VERDAMMT! Von daher spar Dir 3. Deine jämmerliche "Dieser Krieg muss verurteilt werden."- Floskel. Die kauft Dir niemand mehr ab; so, wie Du sie hier formulierst, wahrscheinlich nicht mal mehr Du selbst. Es wird nur noch getoppt von seinem süffisanten Grinsen, mit dem er sich darüber freut, wie, ach, rhetorisch geschickt er doch seine #TäterOpferNivellierung mal wieder verpackt hat. Ich könnt' so kotzen. Slowclap übrigens auch für Brugger und Spitzer, die dem nichts entgegenhalten. Was für eine #shitshow
Case study in the misery of #geopolitics - elsewhere I mentioned the ongoing #Iran riots[^1], to which a classic comment guy replied “ah yes, Muricans and Jews meddling!”
The problem here a complete and rather arrogant blindness of this Western (but also very much Russian and Chinese) “experts” to the fact that even your “average brown people in Iran” have brains and can simply get pissed off when there’s shortages of food or hyperinflation (as in case of Iran right now).
We had the same thing in 1980’s in communist #Poland when you had to queue overnight to get meat or basic groceries from shops because there was an artificial shortage of everything. I had no clue what people in the world were saying about this because it was 1980’s and we also had censorship as an added bonus. Only after communism collapsed we learned that in addition to all people who were understanding and compassionate, there was a whole bunch of “geopolitical” morons who naturally argued that it’s just all just CIA staged coups etc. You certainly couldn’t t see that from your couch 5000 km away, but even your average Eastern Europeans can get genuinely pissed off by decades of totalitarian and completely dysfunctional governance.
In short, when judging protests in foreign countries always try to get the full context before actually making your judgement. I’ve learned this hard way, which is why I never blanket condemned 2023-2024 Polish farmer’s protests against Ukrainian grain imports – that is until at some point there was a clearly visible Russian infiltration into these protests, at which stage I started to point this out publicly. And yes, there are protests obviously controlled from outside and we had a fantastic case studies in #Donbas in 2014 - groups of barely interested people with identical placards who come and disappear in an organised way. Or a classic riot caused by disinformation, as happened in Southport but these are short lived - you can’t have thousands of people sitting on #Euromaidan in winter for three months for a covert salary, that simply doesn’t happen.
P.S. below is a 1988 photo I’ve done on one of such protests in Kraków using a Smena camera and having absolutely zero clue about photography ☺️
Video filmed in almost exactly 12 years ago, on 9 December 2013 - hundreds of thousands of people gathered in #Kyiv on #Euromaidan to protest against arbitrary decision by #Yanukovych to cancel the process of signing the EU Association Agreement, which he promised for the whole year, only to backtrack after a covert meeting with #Putin. In total, over a million of people protested over three winter months in the whole country.
https://video.echelon.pl/w/dpoGaEBfFpaS3bCkPdghkD
Back then Ukrainians faced two choices: keep quiet and continue living under corrupt government, with stagnating economy and lawlessness ruling their daily lives just like Russians do, or take up the fight.
I think the video is also the best illustration to how nonsensical all these theories about “CIA coup” invented by Russians are - you can’t keep a million of people (out of 30m country) protesting for three months in harsh Eastern European winter on salary. They were really desperate and motivated to fight for their freedom.
For comparison, in 2012 when #Putin decided he’s going for his third presidential term in violation of the Constitution, around 160’000 Russians protested across the 130m country… for three days. Respect to those who did, disgrace to the 99.9% who didn’t.
I'm preparing another show for @RadioCORAX This time about the #revolution of #Dignity, the events of 2013-14. For that I want to know what non-Ukrainians would like to know about it.
Please write your questions in the comments below or send me a private msg. Also ask people in your circle what they'd like to know
#ukraine #maidan #euromaidan
#radio #war #ukraineRussiaWar #russia #russianinvasion
Chuck Darwin
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
WikiPicBot
Mark
Apollo3zehn
helgenug
kravietz 🦇
Anastasiia Onu