November 30, 2018

History in the making in Kyiv

More

As I contemplated what to write about for my next column, it dawned on me that three of the most historic events in Ukraine of the last three decades occurred, or got their start, in the late November/early December time period. As a long-time policy advisor at a government agency, the U.S. Helsinki Commission, I had the opportunity to travel to Kyiv and witness at least parts of these three momentous events. So, permit me, dear reader, to switch from my usual focus on Washington and share some reminiscences from Kyiv.

Five years ago, on Sunday, December 1, 2013, I arrived in Kyiv to participate in the 20th Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council as a member of the U.S. delegation. The annual Ministerial always takes place in the country that holds the rotating annual chairmanship, and Ukraine happened to be the chair that year. Little did I realize as I flew into Kyiv that this important diplomatic gathering of 57 states would be eclipsed by developments that were dramatically unfolding in central Kyiv, not far from the conference’s venue. That very day, relatively small protests that had begun on November 21 surged into a rally with more than half a million people in reaction to a shockingly violent crackdown on protesters, journalists and other civilians the night before. 

The eyes of the world, including those attending the Ministerial, were on what was happening on the Maidan. Many statements during that first week of December expressed concern about the use of violence against peaceful protesters and urged Ukraine to uphold OSCE values and respect the rights of the citizens of Ukraine to freedom of assembly and expression. This included the right to peacefully protest. 

I went to the Maidan every day during that first week of December, sometimes accompanied by other U.S. or European officials attending the OSCE Ministerial Council. I had never seen so many European Union flags in my life – a testament to Ukraine’s quest for a European future. At one point, I commented to one of the Europeans that Ukrainians seem to be more pro-European than many in the EU. She did not disagree. 

Thanks to the authorities’ heavy-handedness the night before, the December 1 mass rally was a catalyst, a defining moment. From then on, it was clear that the protests were not going to go away. That week, we saw the construction of a fortified military camp in the center of town with an evolving infrastructure to sustain it. What had begun as spontaneous protests, with no advance planning, sparked by Mustafa Nayyem’s November 21 social media post calling on Ukrainians to protest President Viktor Yanukovych’s last-minute decision – under pressure from Vladimir Putin – to abandon an EU Association Agreement was turning into a full-fledged movement of civil resistance. Sometimes I wonder how differently history might have turned out had the authorities not crudely cracked down on the protesters and precipitated the events of December 1.

Those first weeks of the Euro-Maidan stood in contrast with the beginnings of the Orange Revolution that I had witnessed in 2004. On that November 21 (interestingly, the same date the Euro-Maidan was sparked nine years later!), I was an OSCE election observer in the central Ukrainian city of Kirovohrad, along with numerous other international and domestic observers monitoring the run-off presidential election vote pitting Viktor Yushchenko against Mr. Yanukovych. It was the worst voting day I had ever seen among the nearly three dozen that I have observed in nine countries before and since, including such places as Belarus. 

Driving back into Kyiv from Kirovohrad the next morning, we were astonished to see tens of thousands of people, many wearing orange garb and draped in orange scarves, streaming into the center of the capital to protest the electoral fraud. Walking along the Khreshchatyk a few hours later, we saw a tent city, with a more-or-less ready infrastructure to support the protesters. That cold night and the next day, I witnessed by far the largest gathering of people I had ever seen in my life – numbers that surprised even the organizers.

In contrast to the Euro-Maidan, which had sprung up from civil society, the Orange Revolution was more of an organized political resistance movement. The democratic political opposition had been planning protests for months, as it became increasingly evident from that spring and summer’s pre-election environment that the conduct of the fall 2004 presidential elections would be highly problematic.

Weeks of massive, peaceful protests and international pressure led to a new election, and on December 26, my colleague from the State Department and I observed the clean vote in the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions that could not have been more different than the fraudulent one I had observed in Kirovohrad the month before. But while the Orange Revolution and the Maidan differed in many respects, both were pro-Ukrainian, pro-Western, pro-democratic and pro-rule-of law. In both, corruption was a key theme. Seared in my memory is a woman I met while observing in Kirovohrad. After herself having witnessed election fraud and years of corruption, she exclaimed: “All I want is to live in a normal, civilized country.” 

Moreover, both the Orange and Euro-Maidan revolutions were a continuation of Ukraine’s formal rejection of the imperial Russian project in 1991.

On another late fall day, December 1, 1991, I had the privilege of witnessing Ukraine’s independence referendum and its first presidential election. I was part of a small contingent of U.S. officials that observed democratic and peaceful elections in Kyiv city and oblast. It was a thrill to be in the room the next morning when it was announced to the world the overwhelming 91 percent vote in support of independence. The importance of this historic vote cannot be overstated. Suffice it to say that by the end of that month the USSR, having irretrievably lost the largest non-Russian republic, had ceased to exist. December 1 was the nail in the coffin. 

Younger readers should note that for those of us growing up during the Cold War, it seemed as if the Soviet empire would be around for a very, very long time. Yet the “Evil Empire” that had caused so much destruction and misery for so many was now relegated to the dustbin of history, dramatically changing the global landscape. And an independent Ukraine, for which so many had struggled, suffered and given their lives, was now a reality. 

Exactly 22 years later on that cold, sunny December 1, 2013, little did we know how events on the Maidan were to unfold, culminating nearly three months later in the martyrdom of the Heavenly Hundred and the fall of the exceedingly corrupt, repressive Yanukovych regime. The Euro-Maidan Revolution of Dignity shook Ukraine to its core.

Despite the trauma of Russia’s invasion soon afterwards and its ongoing aggression, Ukraine now has its best opportunity to become a full-fledged member of the Western community of nations. 

Ukraine’s formal independence in 1991 began Ukraine’s journey away from being a captive nation and towards reclaiming its European roots. This odyssey continues. The road has not been even, nor has it been easy, as both the Orange Revolution and the Euro-Maidan attest. Although the promise of December 1, 1991, has yet to come to full fruition, progress has been made, in large part because the Ukrainian people expressed their will during the Orange Revolution and, more consequentially, during the Euro-Maidan. With presidential elections in March and parliamentary elections in October, the upcoming year will be pivotal for Ukraine on its journey to fully realize its potential as an independent, democratic state.

Comments are closed.