Friday, February 21, 2014, 3.57 pm
Photo and video added at 12.40 pm
Source: Ukrainska Pravda
On the night of February 21, in downtown Zhytomyr, on Soborna Square, activists of the Right Sector movement and regular townsfolk toppled a monument to Lenin.
The attack on the monument started after 10 pm. First, they threw Molotov cocktails and poured gasoline over it. Continue reading
Jetzt kann ich wieder lachen und sogar scherzen. Doch noch ein paar Stunden zuvor stand ich mitten auf dem Maidan und heulte mir Seele aus dem Leib. Und ich konnte nicht aufhören. Ein Mädchen kam auf mich zu, umarmte mich, versuchte, mich zu beruhigen, küsste mich auf die Stirn. Ich heulte auf ihrer Schulter, wie ein Kind in Mutters Armen. Sie verstand, dass mich in diesen Minuten nur eine Umarmung retten konnte. Noch ein bisschen, und mein Herz wäre vor lauter Verzweiflung zerrissen.
Ein paar Minuten davor stand ich ruhig auf der Schovkowytschna, schaute zu, wie die Berkut vom Dach des Hochhauses Molotow-Cocktails nach uns warf, wie Demonstranten mit den Pflastersteinen nach Berkut warfen, die in “Schildkrötenstellung” standen (das ist eine Schutzposition, bei der die Kämpfer einen engen Haufen bilden und sich von allen Seiten mit Schutzschildern bedecken) und diese warfen nach uns mit denselben Pflastersteinen zurück, in einem Mix aus Gummigeschoßen und Blendgranaten. Einige der Berkut-Kämpfer kamen raus, zeigten uns, dass sie uns fertigmachen wollen und gestikulierten dabei ausdrucksvoll irgendwo in der Genitaliengegend. Wir standen trotzdem. In der Nähe standen Omas beim Borsch und Grießbrei-Ausschenken, junge Mädels liefen umher und verteilten Milch und Zitronenwasser. Continue reading
The heads of Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the Interior Ministry called on the leaders of the opposition to calm down protesters and return to the negotiating table, giving them two hours.
This joint statement, released on Thursday, 18 February, maintains that “the extremists from the opposition have crossed the line: they are killing innocent people on the streets of the capital, torturing women, burning and exploding buildings and cars.”
The SBU states that chaos is ensuing in the center of Kyiv and that the “leaders of the opposition are choreographing these crimes over the phone.” Continue reading
Volodymyr Viatrovych
The title of this article is borrowed from the memoirs of renowned freedom fighter Nelson Mandela. He devoted almost half a century to the liberation of his people. In the week following his death, the funeral of this great African took its place beside the millions of Ukrainians on Kyiv’s central square as a headline story in world news media. The victory then seemed so close that Mandela’s cautionary statements about the long walk to freedom were seen as irrelevant.
After a few exhausting weeks of fighting, it became obvious that this regime will not fall quickly. The main source of anger for tens of thousands of people was the regime’s apparent failure to take notice of their massive two-month protest. However, over time, the opposition itself became a source of irritation for Maidan. The helplessness and confusion of MPs from the Batkivshchyna, UDAR, and Svoboda parties in the parliament at the very moment when the country was turning into a dictatorship were no less shocking than the audacity of the government standard-bearers.
Ultimately, infuriated citizens unleashed their outrage. And so a real war started on Hrushevskoho. Continue reading
#ukrainian_revolution #Євромайдан #euromaidan #революціягідності #евромайдан #whitehouse
Turmoil continues in Ukraine, with President Viktor Yanukovych — who went on an unexpected sick leave Thursday — and government protestors each accusing the other of stalling efforts to resolve a political crisis which many fear has left the nation on the brink of civil war. Sophia Opatska, CEO of the Lviv Business School, and Veronika Savruk, deputy chief of the information department and external relations at Ukrainian Catholic University, discuss how the situation is a cautionary tale for nations desiring democracy, and they offer thoughts on how Ukraine can rebuild. (Opatska recently wrote an opinion piece for Knowledge@Wharton underscoring the reasons Ukraine’s citizens have become so dissatisfied with their government.)
Reblogged from source: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/ukraines-revolution-dignity-people-business/#comments
Right now, Ukraine is a good learning example for those countries that desire democracy, especially in the context of how this democracy and its basic institutions can be lost.
President Viktor Yanukovych paved the road…
View original post 1,528 more words
From the first days of Euromaidan in the center of Kyiv, you could hear right-wing rhetoric. It is manifested in political slogans, writings on posters and the facades of administrative buildings and in populist, sometimes discriminatory, speeches from the stage. All this content is spread amid protesters and is gradually becoming acceptable.
Photo by Bohdan Utseha
Let’s get real about the situation in Ukraine, it is in fact a war. It’s a war that has been waged by the Victor Yanukovych “mafia” against the sovereignty of the Ukrainian people since the Orange Revolution in 2004. It is only in the past few weeks that this war has escalated from political, economic and individual attacks, to violence against the people who have been peacefully demonstrating against the Yanukovych regime for the past two months.
