@dirt:
trust me, I ain't going anywhere any time soon
Forgive me, I made a huge mistake by participating in imgur chit chat with one of "neutral news follower", spent full day bringing up old posts and stuff on controversial things that our side was guilty of.
! Few statements before I dive in, I live in Kiev, speak russian, was apolitical before the 2013 not paying much attention to history back in school (which I regret now).
! 2013 July - Russia halts imports of chocolate from one of Ukraine's main confectionery makers, Roshen, saying its products fall below safety standards, in what is seen as retaliation for Ukraine's efforts to integrate further with the EU.
! -On Nov. 21, 2013 the government of Mykola Azarov has suspended preparations for signing the Association Agreement with the EU, which was going to be approved at the Vilnius summit of Eastern Partnership in late November. The news sparked outrage in the community. Excuses of the authorities that the signing of this document allegedly could provoke rupture of economic ties with Russia, and the promise of "overestimating" the consequences of signing the Agreement (which was prepared for several years) for Ukraine, did not calm critics, they accuse the government of bowing to Russian pressure, as well as being corrupt and unaccountable.
! Mustafa Nayyem‘s Facebook post, widely credited with sparking the protests.
[Screenshot text: Meeting at 10:30pm near the Independence monument. Dress warmly, bring umbrellas, tea, coffee, good mood and friends. Reposts are encouraged!]
As you can see it was a rather small gathering. Students and then-opposition leaders joined the movement shortly after, hoping to persuade the president Yanukovych to sign the Association Agreement with the EU. When the day came for Vilnius summit of Eastern Partnership, he didn't sign it.
! There was an outcry**, and that would have been it**. But…
! - On the night of 30 November 2013 at 04:00, armed with batons, stun grenades, and tear gas, Berkut special police units attacked and dispersed all remaining protesters from Maidan Nezalezhnosti while suppressing mobile phone communications. The police attacked not only the protesters (most of whom didn't or failed to put up resistance) but also other civilians in the vicinity of Maidan Nezalezhnosti, when the Berkut forces chased unarmed people several hundreds of meters and continued to beat them with batons and feet. At 09:20 Berkut besieged the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery where approximately 50 Euromaidan activists, including the injured, found sanctuary. Police spokeswoman Olha Bilyk justified the police raid by saying that protesters were interfering with preparations to decorate the square for the Christmas and New Year's holidays, and accused them of throwing stones and burning logs.
! On 30 November 2013 by 13:00 another spontaneous meeting was taking place at St. Michael's Square near the St. Michael's Monastery as Maidan Nezalezhnosti continued to be guarded by the Berkut formations. People set up audio system so that anyone who wanted to speak out could do that, suggestions, opinions, and inspiration speeches. A more active part of gathering begun to form units of self-defense. All in all people were enraged by the government actions.
! The next morning that I woke up have been to news channels covering events in which protesters managed to take back the Maidan from berkut formation, and occupy public building. Mostly they stated what already happened, I had to trace it back, the best sources I found to do that at the time was babylon’13 channel on youtube, and hromadske tv channel. Those two really captured the moments.
! Babylon’13 got english subtitles.
! And like that formed the euromaidan as most know it, it was just in name, since most of people at that point had goals of holding government accountable, not of EU integration, from then on it took lesser priority.
! And it was at that point that formed the Antimaidan, as it was, it was paid pro-government gathering. If I had any benefit of doubt about that, I got to become friends with one of the dude’s that went to one of antimaidan protests, for sole purpose of investigating it, he earned his 200 uah that day.
! Russian media was hysteric since the beginning and up to this day. It had it instances of being comedic, shocking and mind blowing. Those that followed it, supported antimaidan, believed it’s lies and came to loath everyone who associated with maidan movement, as “nazis”, which is funny because strictly in russian they used “fascists” but those that spread the word of russian media to english speakers used “nazis”.
! The reason maidan was painted as nazi-movement is because of nationalistic factions that joined together and became Right Wing, with Yarosh as its leader. The nationalistic movement holds Bandera in high regards because he wanted independence for Ukraine, to free it from soviet clutches. They collaborated with nazis at the beginning because they saw them as a chance for the country’s independence , when it turned out to be dead end, they fought against soviets and nazis. Turns out that in many cases ‘nazi’ and ‘fascists’ becomes everyone’s favorite buzzword, that maidan hates russians. Which wasn't the case, people welcomed russian flags on maidan, but were strongly against the soviet fans.
! Since the start of maidan it was honestly stuck , the protesters refused to leave the Independence square and quite effectively barricaded and made themselves almost at home. Another thing that was presented as gathering of homeless scum, that made a mess of center of capital. Occasional, in retrospect, confrontations took places, during that long period of peace and calm formed automaidan and self-defense units. Automaidan would take protests to work places and homes of government officials, self-defense units remained on maidan to keep it orderly, defend in case of police crackdown, deal with provocateurs, drunks and troublemakers(titushkas).
! Antimaidan occasionally would gather under the banner of Party of regions, President Yanukovich political party which held a majority in parliament.
! Things escalated when government passed anti-protest laws on 16 January which criminalized all of the Euromaidan opposition's methods employed during protests. The laws introduced 10-year jail terms for blockading government buildings; hefty fines and prison terms for protesters who wear face masks and helmets; fines and prison terms for unauthorised installation of and provision of facilities or equipment for tents, stages or amplifiers in public places; and driving bans for people who form convoys of more than five cars. That almost a week later resulted Hrushevskoho Street riots .
! With protestors, and Right wing members using cocktails Molotovs, bats, and shields (stolen from berkut during earlier confrontations) they attempted to force their way to government district. On maidan side that resulted in 6 protestors dead, lots of videos and photos, on antimaidan side of things that resulted photo’s videos of Internal forces getting set aflame and bombarded with bricks and stones.
The mutual loathing continued to grow. During that period occasional truces would take place during which protesters talked with those serving in internal forces in attempt to bring then over to their side.
! Days passed on and on, attempts on solving the dilemma politically continued
! On 18 February 2014, 20,000 Euromaidan protesters in Kiev advanced on Ukraine's parliament in support of rolling back the Constitution of Ukraine to its pre-2004 form. Guns been fired, using both live and rubber ammunition, police used tear gas and flash grenades in an attempt to repel thousands of demonstrators, who fought back with crude weapons and cocktails of Molotov. That and the following day was the bloodiest in whole period of maidan. Many controversial speculations go around, a lot of protestors were killed(including one of our students from university who was day away from receiving his diploma), among around 100 of dead - 16 police officers. A long day of mourning followed the bloodshed, another attempt at making political peace was made by opposition leaders and government. During the grieving people from one of self-defense units proclaimed that are not going to accept any deals with government( the deal was that president stays in power for another year) and put forth an ultimatum, Yanokovich should get out before 10:00 am.
! The next day villa of Yanukovich was found empty. In Parliament, Speaker Volodymyr Rybak submitted his resignation, citing alleged illness. Yanukovych's whereabouts were unknown despite media reports he had flown to Kharkiv( from where he fled later on to Russia). Oleksandr Turchynov stated that in fact most of the ministers had disappeared as well as Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko (who is reported to have fled to Belarus) and President Viktor Yanukovych, "The only one legitimate body left is the Verkhovna Rada – so we are here to vote today. The major tasks for today are: to vote for the new speaker, prime minister and interior minister Parliament voted Tuchynov as new speaker. On 23 February, Turchynov was also chosen as temporary president.
! The parliament also followed a request of the nationalist party Swoboda to declare a law as invalid which allowed regions to establish several official languages if more than 10% of it’s inhabitants speak a different language.
! 24 February The European commission acknowledges the Ukrainian parliament’s decision to deselect Yanukovych as president and accepts the new government as legitimate. The commission also declares its willingness to still sign the contract for association and free trade between the EU and Ukraine but postpones further talks about the contracts until after the presidential election.
! 26 February The so called Maidan council agrees to name Arseni Jazeniuk as interim prime minister as well as deciding on other members of the interim cabinet.
! 27 February The interim cabinet and prime minister are elected/confirmed by the parliament. Five members of the new cabinet are members of the fatherland party, three are part of the nationalist Swoboda party. No members of Klitschko’s UDAR party are part of it.
! These developments provoke Russian president Putin to invade the Crimea. The Euromaidan protests lead to the 2014 Crimean Crisis.
! Why was Crime and east so full of people with antimaidan sentiment.
! -memory of soviet good old times
-belief that maiden was west(USA, EU, NATO) plan
-belief that nazis were ruling the country
-hate toward maidan for harming police forces
-belief that the russian language will be banned
-belief that nazi’s from Right Wing will come to Crimea to wreak havok
! Kernes a mayor of Kharkiv called forth Congress of the Southern and Eastern regions, which many believed to result in call for help from Russia, or proclamation of breaking away and establishing their own country so to say. Surprisingly they didn't, they simply passed a resolution, declaring that they are ready to take responsibility for protecting constitutional order in their territory.
! Now I truly dont remember at which point exactly did paid actors(or titushkas or russian officers) pulled that stunt, but it was somewhere in beginning. Out of nowhere proclaimed Right wing activist from Lviv(that is a city from west Ukraine, which makes it very pro-ukrainian) come along on bus with crimean number plate, pull out guns and start to shoot them at police officers I think? The whole exchange is being filmed by russian media.
! People are even more convinced that its Right Wing coming to set their rule, ban their language oppress them
! Protestors at Crimea attempted to take over their parliament first time but failed when Crimea tatars stepped in. All seemed well and happy frankly, I took it as something to look forward to since both maidan and antimaidan held a negative opinion on then opposition leaders, easily could those two put government under pressure it could have been a beginning, an attempt to eradicate corruption. Heck Right wing and some of maidan activists and temporary government were at each other necks .
! But then started to appear what many call is “green men”. Crimea has a navy russian base – Black sea Fleet. They were armed men in military uniform without signs of identification who were prepared far better than you usual protestor. They called themselves militia. Long story short they took over parliament, the parliament held an emergency session. It voted to terminate the Crimean government, and replace Prime Minister Anatolii Mohyliov with Sergey Aksyonov. Aksyonov belonged to the Russian Unity party, which received 4% of the vote in the last election. It also voted to hold a referendum on greater autonomy on 25 May(which in the end got moved to earlier date)
! Central government didn’t attempt much action. During all of this Crimea had its fair share of pro-ukrainian rallies.
! On March 1, 2014 the de facto Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov appealed directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a signed statement calling for Russia to "provide assistance in ensuring peace and tranquility on the territory" of Crimea. Meanwhile, Aksyonov took control of "security [in Crimea] on a temporary basis", he said. All commanders are to obey his orders or "resign". Akysonov also announced that the date of the self-sovereignty referendum was moved up to 30 March.
! Protests against the new authorities in Kiev and in support of Russians in Crimea occurred throughout Eastern and Southern Ukraine on March 1.
! On March 1, the interim president of Ukraine, Turchynov, signed a decree declaring the appointment of Sergei Aksyonov as the head of the government of Crimea to be unconstitutional.
! Russian President Vladimir Putin formally asked the Federation Council for permission to "use the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine until the normalization of the socio-political situation in the that country." Hours later, the Federation Council voted unanimously to grant permission.
! The Consulate of the Russian Federation in Simferopol started to issue Russian passports to residents of Ukraine. Members of the former Ukrainian riot police, Berkut, were among the first in Crimea to be granted Russian citizenship.
! Ukrainian military bases started to be surrounded by green men, Putin order tons of military exercises near Ukrainian borders. Central government still tells military to stay put, keep on defense, basically to stand around and do nothing.
! That resulted in some bases to be taken over, some soldiers to side with Crimean new government, some to stay put and hope for the best.
! Referendum scheduled for 30 March, got moved up to 16 March 2014.
! Crimeans vote in a referendum to rejoin Russia or return to its status under the 1992 constitution. Not following the usual procedures, you could vote with your passport or you can vote without it, you can go to any location and vote again, the bulletins didn’t have any protection marks either.
! On March 16, 2014, Crimean news agencies are now reporting that the official results of the referendum are in, and the region overwhelmingly voted to re-join Russia. Some 95.5% of voters in Crimea have supported joining Russia, officials say. Election officials said the turnout was a record high, beating the numbers who vote in local elections.
! After that Ukrainian side kept dragging and doing very little, while pro-russian Crimea was quite busy with its green men, adjusting to russian laws and so on.
! Ended that part with ukraine calling to withdraw it’s remaining soldiers from peninsula. Whom were then stationed over to other regions.
! And then we come to third part of this all I’d say…The unrest in East, Anti-terrorist operation which turned into war, clash in Odessa that had somewhere around or less 50 dead from both sides. Malaysian MH17 airplane getting shot down. Slow and steady isolation of Russia from world. Period of Peace, in name only.
I am crap at constructing my walls of text, I had time today to refresh my memory on earlier stages of Ukrainian crisis, Didn't yet get a chance to look back at timeline on it's third stage I'd say.
Basically each side hates one another guts, more bitterness at times grows, people getting more involved by supporting one or the other side, justifications becomes easy, everyone blames one another. Huge body count keeps growing steady, economy being shaky and constantly getting beat up further.
The way I see it, Putin needed to make an impression on his electorate, give them something to be proud of, Crimea is easy target plus the possibilities of Russian aggression against Ukraine been predicted years ago. He takes Crimea, part of russians are filled with pride, Crimea back home, to connect with it they planned to throw money in making a bridge which would of connected Crimea with Russia, the plans got downgraded as sanctions rained down. The conflict in east, if those lands became controlled by Russia, so to say, it would have clear and easy access to Peninsula, or they can put their own people if ukraine central government agreed to separatists demands to change ukraine to a federation, but for now they have a good picture to show to its people what revolutions lead to, to discourage them from even thinking about it. Best case scenario for Russia would have been to take southern-east and connect with both Crimea and Transnistria(to which Russia refused to give more money to because of harsh economical situation it experiencing, or so I've heard recently)