January 17, 2015

2014: From Euro-Maidan to Revolution of Dignity

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Vladimir Gontar/UNIAN

The scene on January 20 on Kyiv’s Hrushevsky Street, where violent clashes between the Berkut and protesters broke out on January 19 and were continuing.

Mourners at the funeral of Euro-Maidan activist Serhii Nihoyan in Bereznuvativka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, on January 26.

Sergey Isaev/UNIAN

Mourners at the funeral of Euro-Maidan activist Serhii Nihoyan in Bereznuvativka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, on January 26.

By January 29, President Yanukovych’s authoritarian rule was on the brink of collapse during that day’s parliamentary session, as deputies were ready to form a new majority and reinstate the 2004 constitutional amendments that would have brought back a parliamentary-presidential republic. Yet the Russian government – rattled by the prior day’s resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov – renewed pressure on Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians to keep Mr. Yanukovych in power. That day it announced renewed trade barriers and freezes on the financial aid and natural gas discounts extended in mid-December 2013. Mr. Yanukovych rushed into Parliament, where he reportedly blackmailed members of his Party of Regions parliamentary faction to approve his version of an amnesty bill that made possible a state of emergency in 15 days.
Our free-lance correspondent in Kyiv, Zenon Zawada reported that the political winds were slowly eroding Mr. Yanukovych’s support base, which was confirmed in an interview on Polish state radio on January 30 by former Polish President and EU diplomat Aleksander Kwasniewski. “I think the president’s urgent visit to the Rada occurred because he’s afraid that the majority is no longer on his side,” said Mr. Kwasniewski, who has spent more than a decade dealing with Mr. Yanukovych and Ukraine’s politicians. “He lost several dozen votes in the Party of Regions. He went to discipline them, frighten them, blackmail them, and that had an effect.”
Speaking on February 2 on Kyiv’s Independence Square, Vitali Klitschko told a crowd of some 50,000 that President Yanukovych’s resignation followed by elections was the only way out of the crisis. “Our proposition is the return to the Constitution of 2004; division of powers among the president, Parliament and government; formation of a new Cabinet; and the most important thing for the resolution of these issues are early presidential and parliamentary elections,” Mr. Klitschko said. The UDAR party leader also demanded the unconditional release of all protesters arrested since late November 2013.
Both Mr. Klitschko and another opposition leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, had attended the annual Munich Security Conference on February 1 and met with Western officials. Mr. Klitschko told protesters in Kyiv that he had requested “international mediation in our negotiations with Yanukovych.” Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Mr. Klitschko said that the Ukrainian people had shown their will for political change despite violence against them, and he called on friends of Ukraine in the West to help Ukraine’s democratic movement succeed. At the conference Messrs. Klitschko and Yatsenyuk met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and European Council President Herman von Rompuy reiterated to conference participants that the EU association deal was still available to Ukraine. “We know time is on our side. The future of Ukraine belongs with the European Union,” he said.
On February 4, the Verkhovna Rada concluded a session without approving changes to the Constitution of Ukraine that would have curtailed the powers of the president. Opposition lawmakers failed to get the necessary support to push through a motion to revert to an earlier version of the Constitution that limited presidential powers. The opposition would have needed support from at least 237 of the 447 national deputies in Parliament to push through the motion.
Prior to the vote in the Rada, Oleksander Yefremov, the parliamentary leader of the ruling Party of Regions, sounded conciliatory. “This is a dead end, and I therefore suggest that we all forget the grievances, victories and defeats, our careers, and instead join efforts to work out the strategy of getting out of the current situation,” he said. But Mr. Yefremov also said Mr. Yanukovych had already made concessions by accepting the government’s resignation, as well as agreeing to rescind controversial anti-protest legislation and to a conditional amnesty for detained protesters. The opposition dismissed the moves as insufficient.
Mr. Klitschko met earlier that day with Mr. Yanukovych. Mr. Klitschko said he told the president “tempers are heating up” and urged him “to immediately make a decision.” Mr. Klitschko had told Parliament reform was needed to end the ongoing. “I’m convinced that if we don’t do that, then the society will explode, and we will see their anger on the street,” Mr. Klitschko said. “That’s why I’m calling on everybody – we should follow the civilized path, stop the dictatorship, return to the Constitution that makes Parliament deputies the decision-makers and not just those who press buttons.”
February 9 was a day of yet another huge demonstration on the Maidan as over 50,000 people gathered to make their voices heard when President Yanukovych returned to Kyiv after private talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin held on the sidelines on the Sochi Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony. Mr. Klitschko called for urgent constitutional reform to reduce presidential powers. “Maidan is not just in the capital of Ukraine, Maidan has to be in every small city,” Mr. Klitschko added. “And if people say, ‘We don’t want to live by these rules,’ then this is one way to change the power and to put pressure on the president.”
The European Union Council decided on February 10 that it would not satisfy the Euro-Maidan’s pleas for sanctions against Ukraine’s officials. “Applying sanctions against Ukraine would be incorrect now,” EU Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso told the Reuters news agency in an interview published on February 12. “The priority should become creating the conditions for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Now we are in such a phase that the priority is stability in the country and avoiding violence to begin a serious dialogue between the government and opposition. At the current phase, other measures could have a negative effect.”
A violent dispersal of the Euro-Maidan grew increasingly likely after the Procurator General’s Office of Ukraine announced on February 12 that it had closed its investigations into the November 30, 2013, violent dispersal of protesters that had ignited the nationwide revolts, dismissing the criminal charges. The dropped charges were intended as a signal from the Yanukovych administration to all state employees, particularly the police forces, that they’re protected from criminal charges when obeying unlawful government orders, said a statement released by the Batkivshchyna party.
The Procurator General’s Office based its decision on the amnesty law approved by Parliament on January 16 that was supposed to free from criminal responsibility all those on both sides of the civil unrest between November 21 and December 26, 2013. A second amnesty law passed by Parliament on January 29 was dubbed by the opposition and EU politicians as “the hostage bill” since it proposed releasing imprisoned activists and dropping criminal charges in exchange for the Euro-Maidan protest ceasing its activity.
In preparation for a new wave of repressions, Euro-Maidan Commander Andrii Parubii launched the Maidan Self-Defense (Samo-Oborona) organization, consisting of brigades (sotni) of 75 to 150 activists. About 12,000 were among its ranks already, he estimated. Brigades were formed of Afghan war veterans, nationalist organizations members of political parties and women. “The [Maidan] Self-Defense defends the rights and freedoms of citizens and the organized resistance to the current regime,” Mr. Parubii said on February 11 as he presented its founding mission statement. “We are going beyond the bounds of the barricades because the Maidan is all of Ukraine.” Among the Maidan Self-Defense’s tasks, he said, is to preserve the sovereignty and unity of Ukraine, defend Ukraine’s European choice and resist the “acting criminal regime until its complete removal.”
Then, on February 18, Kyiv’s central district became a war zone after protest marches to the Parliament turned deadly, igniting at least three days of street battles between activists and law enforcement authorities, who attempted to liquidate the Maidan with gunfire and firebombing.

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