A VERY PERSONAL LOOK AT HOW IT ALL BEGAN IN UKRAINE ON MAIDAN SQUARE

 

There was obviously a lot at stake. But at first, and even at second glance, it was almost impossible to ascertain the motivations behind the smoke, fire, brick-throwing and club wielding, medieval-looking siege-mentality that prevailed on Kiev’s Maidan Square in the winter of 2013. I came at it completely ignorant of all that had preceded this open display of human emotion and unbridled violence.

I searched the internet for anything that might throw light on the situation. This was in late November or early December 2013. There was very little information to be gleaned. There didn’t appear to be much reporting going on and that which met my eye talked of ultranationalists and those who seemed to have a predilection for books such as ‘Mein Kampf’. In those days the BBC had a reporter on the square who was apparently also attempting to find out what all the chaos was meant to achieve. Those he spoke to were not very articulate on this point and gave the impression that they were against all sides.

 The most detailed commentary I came upon at that time was the text of a conversation between two young men who were attached to some anarchist group or other. All I recall is one of them relating that in the initial stages, those who were on the square were peaceful enough, staging their protest quietly urging the government to look west toward the EU rather than east toward Russia and that in general they were respectful of the law. He related that this changed when more radical elements arrived. According to him these radicals took charge and even began beating the original, peaceful protestors. That is unfortunately as much as I recall from what was a reasonably long text.

As far as I know there are no images of that original group of protesters on the square so it is unclear just how many they were and whether the discussion above was accurate. I should say however that the two anarchist types who were speaking appeared to have no axe to grind in the situation, they appeared to take no side whatsoever. I suspect therefore it was as the text appeared, a straightforward discussion trying to understand what the hell had happened and what was happening, for themselves.

 As I looked on over the next days and weeks it was in horror. Molotov cocktails flew in great numbers through the air landing on groups of helmeted policemen who were instantly set on fire. Their colleagues rushed toward them with fire extinguishers operating as they tore off their helmets and rolled on the ground. Groups of young men tore bricks from the street and hurled them toward the lines of police who stood stationery, holding their shields in front of them. Another young man wielded a long thick chain lashing it toward the police line. Others took over a bulldozer and drove it at the line. Another man in what appeared to be his early thirties pointed a can of some toxic fluid at a group of policemen causing them to put their hands to their eyes. All the while the noise from every side was deafening.

A young policeman was chased by a large group. He stumbled and fell and began to be beaten by several youths using large clubs fitted with metal fixtures making them resemble (once again) something from medieval times. Behind a barrier of corrugated iron a catapult contraption had been erected by which Molotov cocktail bottles could be sent high into the sky to come down on the police. This was manned by what appeared to be a quite elderly man. At one point some of the flaming liquid escaped a bottle and flamed down his trouser leg. 

 These scenes of absolute mayhem went on day after day. The chief of police had requested of the president that his force be issued guns to better keep order. This request was denied. They would have to make do with their perspex shields and relatively useless batons. This impotence was reflected in the static quality of the policing that obtained on the square. In reality they were not enforcing order at all, or at least only symbolically by being there. They stood in their line and simply took whatever was thrown (or driven) at them.

The above did not cover all the police forces. The Berkut special police were tougher and more highly trained than the relatively inexperienced young men who could only stand behind their shields and shelter as best they could. The Berkut guys no doubt had a few psychopathic individuals among them as well as those who were simply burly thugs who found police life suited their mentality. These men tolerated very little from those they came across and there can be no doubt that some broken heads and bones came as a direct result of their fury.

 I came across a very interesting video interview quite early on, perhaps in mid-March. Down a side street with the tumultuous noise of the fighting going on within earshot two young journalists with a camera interviewed a late middle-aged copper. He was in a state of some agitation pleading with the journos to report the truth and not twist the facts. He spoke of how the opposition parties in the Ukrainian parliament had called on these people to come to the square and create this chaos. He opined that all the questions involved should be resolved in parliament, not here in the streets and on the square. He bemoaned the fact that swastikas had appeared on walls all around and that we should not be having anything to do with fascism. He talked of the school holidays coming up and soon the cherry trees would be blossoming. It was clear he was very deeply saddened at all that was going on.

As I continued my investigations as best I could I became aware of various American officials appearing on the square. Senator John McCain, the American ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt and the then Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria nuland. Senator McCain even stood on the platform with speakers such as the head of the Svoboda Party (which had originally been named the ‘Social-National Party’ and in which the Hitler salute, the ‘Seig Heil’ was used often. His name, Oleh Tyahnybok. He was not one of those selected for high office by Geoffrey Pyatt and Victoria Nuland in their infamous ‘Fuck the EU’ leaked phone call, but at least two members of his party were.

It is estimated that some 17 young policemen died as a result of what occurred on Maidan Square during those hellish months that winter and early spring. However, the crucial event was the mass shooting that took place from the Hotel Ukraina. The reporting of this event has been confused and most of the time highly prejudiced, however the report from the official investigation concludes that both the police and those protesting were shot. Various claims have been made and in the initial stages it was simply assumed that Ukrainian special forces had committed these crimes. It was much later that evidence tended to show that the protesters had control of the hotel, not the security forces at the time these shootings took place. Later too a group of Georgians gave a detailed explanation of how they had been charged with coming in and doing the deed at the behest of anti-government individuals.

At any rate the event above proved the crucial break point in the entire catalog of chaotic events that had stretched over many months. The militarisation of those protesting/demonstrating/rioting had been clear for some times. I recall images of those wearing symbols reminiscent of the Nazi Wolfsangel posing with weapons in some forces (quite likely in Poland) where they appeared to have been training in army fatigues and various military accessories. A squad of men claimed to have been ex-IDF troops who had come all the way from Israel to fight on the square. The atmosphere had reached fever pitch where there was no longer simply a protest going on but an all out constant riot and violent insurrection. Government buildings had been set on fire and every possible attempt had been made to kill as many of the young police forces as possible.

 It was finally enough for the president (Yanukovich) and he fled, making it safely to the Russian Federation where he is to this day. The government fell, the party that had largely composed it, the ‘Party of Regions’ was soon after disbanded and banned. The main opposition leader was jailed. Members of Parliament were then regularly ambushed outside the doors of the Ukrainian Rada parliament building and unceremoniously thrown into rubbish dumpsters. Those who had brought down the president and government now ruled the streets attacking whatever targets they saw fit. If you dared wear the Russian St. George ribbon you would be surrounded and be in danger of losing your life for it. Just as every gravestone in Jewish cemeteries had been daubed with swastikas without noticeable attention from the law the atmosphere of pure fear through the license of youth must have been palpable.

Videos appeared of rampaging youths smashing into offices and destroying everything inside. A Russian bank was attacked by every possible means by a large mob. Videos of any, whether elderly or not objecting to the lawlessness being beaten up were commonplace. Another video showed a head of a militia brandishing a machine gun and demanding a newspaper editor do as he said, or else. The new Minister for Education, a woman was seen walking round a primary school classroom asking the  children their names. If it was a name of Russian origin she would bemoan the fact and tell such children they had bad parents and were unlucky. Those with Ukrainian names were of course greeted with praise.

Before long TV and radio stations where the Russian language was used were closed down. One of the first laws enacted demanded that Ukrainian be the first language everywhere and strongly implied that all schools where Russian was used would be closed down. Russian speakers were seen beaten up on the streets by people who may well have been their neighbours or local shopkeepers. An atmosphere of terror reigned if you spoke Russian or had any inclination to honour the memory of the Soviet Red Army liberating Ukraine in the Second World War.

Murders became more frequent with very little chance of the perpetrators being caught. The strongest and most violent reigned. Democracy was no more to be found in the land, a land that had been more or less divided between two ethnicities living relatively peacefully together now had only one ruler and that was the nationalistic Ukrainian force determined to drive down or out all Russian influence and all Russian-speakers if necessary. There would no longer be power sharing through the democratic process… and so the uprising in the Donbass region began by the Russian-speakers now completely robbed of their ability to vote for the president or party of their choice. And who among them knew what else they would be robbed of over time…

And so it was that what we have now ten years on began. The violence exhibited in place of the democratic process has continued through many, many cruel and terrible stages until today.

But for the western political elites there was not then and there apparently is not now any problem. Where the result suited those elites' democracy was apparently in the shape of a club, hand gun, hunting rifle, toxic spray, Molotov cocktail… or even a bulldozer. Make of that what you will… but democracy as we commonly understand it, it is not. It is convenience for certain individuals at the expense of SO very much pain and suffering. One can only assume those who sought this path were of the type whose blood flows cold as ice, as cold as the many dead of all sides who lay, lost to their loved ones, among the hard stones of the Maidan.