Ukrainian uprising anniversary
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — This phenomenon occurs every November when cold weather hits Kiev. Dmytro Ryznichenko is constantly reminded of changes in the weather and is overwhelmed with emotions.
“This is where it really started,” said Ryznichenko as we walked through central Kiev.
Recently on Independence Square, he reflected on the uprising that brought about a decade of profound change in Ukraine and ultimately led to the current war with Russia. “Ten years of war and struggle,” the 41-year-old psychologist continued reluctantly, exhausted. “Really, it’s like the blood just started flowing. I don’t regret anything. But God, it’s so annoying.”
On November 21, 2013, Russia-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announced he would shelve an agreement that would bring the country closer to the European Union and instead deepen ties with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
An enraged crowd soon filled Independence Square for a peaceful anti-government protest. Demonstrators then set up tent camps with barricades, Self-Defense Force units and banners with revolutionary slogans, after riot police used batons and tear gas to disperse people. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in early December to protest against police violence.
The conflict reached a climax in February 2014, when police launched a brutal crackdown on protests, killing dozens of people between February 18 and 21.
police sniper. A European-brokered peace deal between the government and protest leaders envisaged the establishment of a transitional government and early elections, but demonstrators later occupied government buildings and Yanukovych fled to Russia. . The Institute of National Memory of Ukraine announced that 107 people were killed in the attack. Uprising.
Caterina Gracca, a 23-year-old student at the time, joined the pro-Western crowd, seeing it as “the revolution of her generation.”
“My top priorities were the values of freedom, fundamental freedoms and dignity.”
“We had to prevent the return of totalitarian regimes and the Soviet Union,” Gratka said in a telephone interview.
She recalled police violence and the streets near Independence Square stained with blood and “understood very clearly that we had entered another phase.”
After Yanukovych’s ouster, Russia responded by illegally annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014. Moscow-backed separatist forces then launched an uprising in Ukraine’s eastern region, known as Donbas, leading to a long-running conflict that left thousands dead.
Finally, in February 2022, President Putin launched a war in the midst of the largest European conflict since World War II, which left tens of thousands of people dead on both sides and continues to this day.
“Yanukovych was a puppet of Moscow, which wanted to use him as a figure to keep Ukraine on Russian territory,” said Katerina Zarembo, an analyst at the Kiev-based think tank Center for New Europe. He was a person,” he said. “When he fled, it became clear to the Kremlin that they were losing Ukraine.”
In 2013, Ukrainians wanted the country to sign a deal with the EU, but Putin pressured Yanukovych to leave at the last minute. Subsequent Ukrainian leaders were more eager than ever to bring Kiev into the fold of Western powers.
“So what we saw in 2022, which was that Ukraine had to either become part of Russia or be destroyed, was an intention that was seen much earlier. And when that didn’t happen, Russia intervened militarily,” Zarembo said.
Despite the disaster, Ukraine is more united and more united than it was during 32 years of independence.
It is moving closer to the EU, the US, and the West in general, an outcome that President Putin has been trying to prevent. Now under President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the country enjoys widespread support and admiration in the midst of Russian aggression. “All this was done at a very high price,” Ryznichenko said.
Standing in the Heavenly Hundred Alley, named in honor of those who died in the uprising, he recalled the sniping by a special police unit known as Berkut, which was disbanded in 2014.
“It felt like death had opened its arms,” Ryznichenko said.
“I remember seeing the dead lying there because it was cold. I remember being in a blanket near the General Post Office. I remember that,” he added.
Their portraits are now on permanent display on the street as a memorial to those killed in what Ukraine calls the “Revolution of Dignity,” whose names Ryznichenko said she later learned. In 2014, he volunteered to fight against Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and was wounded in Ilobaisk.
The investigation into the shooting continues, and the Attorney General’s Office recently indicted five members of the Berkut police force, all of whom currently reside in Russia. A further 35 people are under investigation.
Today, Independence Square is home to many small blue and yellow flags symbolizing soldiers who died in the war. The number is increasing every day.
Every year, Gracca gathers with friends at a nearby restaurant named “The Last Barricade” to commemorate the uprising. But after 21 months of war with Russia, the day brought conflicting emotions.
“To be honest, personally, I am very tired of the fact that every generation has to die for Ukraine,” she said, adding that the decade of her youth was tainted by violence and now said he wanted a “normal, normal life.” ”
“This never-ending struggle is like a closed circle that lasts for centuries,” she said.
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Associated Press photographer Efrem Lukatsky contributed.
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Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary
Ukrainian uprising anniversary