It seems that in October 2013 none of us saw that coming. Especially us – three Latvian students that were excited to buy super-cheap flight tickets for January in Kiev. All of us had visited Ukraine before and we were more than happy about the trip that would come in few months. Then, just a month later, Kiev became much more than just a destination on our newly-purchased tickets. Kiev was all over the news as the Ukrainian people showed their frustration about their president refusing to sign an association agreement with the EU. Then came the wide protests and several acts of violence. People started to gather in the Maidan Nezalezhnosti – Independence Square. Now, two months later, they are still there. But it is no longer just about the European Union. Freedom, democracy, independence and honesty are now the things people have started to fight for.
We arrived in Kiev on January 15th. We knew that protests in Maidan were still carrying on, but no pictures, previously seen on the Internet, could’ve been compared with what we saw and felt when actually going to Maidan. I was born shortly after Latvia gained its independence in 1991, but for some reason Maidan felt to me the way barricades in Riga before Soviet collapse might’ve felt to my parents. People in Maidan were calm, united and many of their ways of expressions carried a great satire.
People of all ages and from different regions were there and it was hard to believe that this is 2014 – time where it seemed that people do not need to barricade themselves in the city center to be heard. However, what came during the next days was even more unexpected.
The next day, January 16th, new laws were approved. As explained in the Internet, they were accepted in a great hurry and no electronic vote counting was used. Some leaders of parliamentary groups just named the number of the votes in their group even if some members were absent. Funny or not, but that was just enough for the new laws to be accepted. Since then, people were not allowed to cover their face or wear helmets during gatherings, they were also not allowed to pitch their tents or stages without government allowance, and bunch of many other restrictions that basically made any ordinary form of protest illegal had been implemented.1
The next day, I went to a bar to meet my CouchSurfing host. There was a leaflet on each table that explained the new laws. My host was particularly worried as she worked in a non-governmental organization, and the new laws were relevant to her work. “I can go to Maidan every day, but if the government makes me pay higher taxes, I have to do it,” she told me with a great frustration. People I met in the bar were all friendly to me, especially when finding out I am from Latvia and such attitude was present all over our stay here. Later the same night, I, my host and her flat mate were sitting in the kitchen and the young people just did not know what else they can do. They said that some of their friends were going to distribute leaflets in the remote areas of Kiev to inform those people who get less access to the Internet and rely more on the governmental TV and radio stations that (naturally) like to present the reality in a much more distorted way. As I sat there, I suddenly became incredibly sad as these students were more than ready to act. They just did not know what can be done for such blind and ignorant government. And any real help from the outside still was not exceeding bunch of supporting statements and did not mean much in the Ukrainian reality. After growing dissatisfaction from the protesters, the new laws were canceled today.
I will be honest – we spent our days here in Kiev quite lazy, but it was still impossible to avoid the revolutionary mood that was to be sensed all over the capital. Wherever we went, the young people were discussing the events and showed clear dissatisfaction with the actions of the government. Our next CouchSurfing hosts even carried a walkie-talkie with them to be constantly updated with what was going on. The next day, they went to the protests. It turned out to be Sunday, January 19th. Maidan was full of people during the daytime. They were wearing children’s masks and pots on their heads to “celebrate” the new laws that banned them from protecting themselves during the protests in the cold time. The biggest action took place in the evening – as we watched in the live videos, Berkut buses were burning in the European square. Meanwhile, our hosts were out there. We decided to let them not to worry about hosting us and stayed at our friend’s flat. The next day they told us they had been protesting there until the very morning. Later many unpleasant videos were published and it showed some aggression from both sides- Berkut men being attacked by Molotov cocktails thrown at them or activists being beaten by the same Berkut forces. Perhaps it is a natural consequence of government ignoring the demands of its citizens for 2 months.
Couple of days later we had to leave Kiev as we had few other towns in our plans. On January 22, we were taking a train from Dnipropetrovsk to Kharkiv. There were no signs of protests in Dnipropetrovsk – the life went by surprisingly regular there. In the train we got a call from our friend who stayed in the capital. “They are now shooting at the people,” he told us. We could not believe our ears. I could not believe it could go that far, but the news kept coming in. Killed activists, kidnapped journalists, videos of Berkut forces shooting at cameramen2 and doctors3. Everything started to feel just a bit more surreal.
After two days in Kharkiv (again – no visible signs of protests or local interest in the events), our next stop was the towns of Sumy and Romny. Romny is small and quite insignificant town in East Ukraine. Our CouchSurfing hosts were a nice, ordinary and incredibly generous Ukrainian family. And yet, they kept following the events and supported those who were out there in Kiev demanding their rights to have an honest and democratic form of government. The next day, as we took a walk around the town, we stumbled upon a small gathering. A hundred people or so gathered by the monument of Taras Shevchenko to pray for those who died during the clashes in the capital.
A friend of our host gladly accompanied us during the day and told us about how many people from the region are going to the capital or about the local activists that blocked the road so that the Romny special forces could not join Berkut in Kiev. As our companion claimed, many of the guards were actually thankful to the activists as they did not wish to participate in the fights against the protesters. “Be careful, girls!” he warned us as we sat in the bus back to the capital the next day.
I would like to point out that despite all the alarming news and disturbing footage in the news and internet, the city of Kiev is not burning down. The life goes on as usual except for the Maidan and European squares and several administrative buildings. People go to work, sit in cafes, use the metro and go shopping. We were never under any danger and did not even think about getting close to the most violent spots. We received our information about what was going on in the city just the same as everyone else in other countries - via the Internet. However, we were given the chance to meet ordinary Ukrainians, most of which tried to find the time to go to Maidan in the evenings.
Also, I would like to express my dissatisfaction with some people and sources that like to claim that whole protests are organized under the Western influence or that all the protesters are nothing but a bunch of terrorists attacking their protective forces. Yes, Molotov cocktails and sticks were being thrown on the Berkut men - nobody’s denying it. However, I find it very foolish and ignorant to see this kind of radical activists as an average Ukrainian protester. Those, who think so, simply have not been in Maidan where you can meet kids, students, elderly people and even people in wheelchairs. In addition, if there are some cases of activists getting too violent, it does not seem that the local institutions are dealing with these cases the proper way. I am not a specialist in the law sciences, but even to me a public stripping down of an activist4 or abduction of wounded protesters from the hospital5 somehow do not seem like proper ways of determining the seriousness of crime and applying the punishment.
We met our next CouchSurfing hosts in Maidan. It was all calm and it seemed that many people have come there for the first time, possibly coming from other regions. People gladly took pictures of the doll of imprisoned president Janukovich. Like nearly everyone else we had met on our way, our hosts - young Ukrainian couple also carried a hope that the change is about to come. They agreed that the European Union does not have to be country’s Number 1 aim, however, the government have to give its people the chance to discuss the direction they want Ukraine to head. They fully understood that many Ukrainians are still aiming to Russia as Ukraine’s “big brother” and want to keep it that way. At the same time, they said that the government is going too far and that there is no way back. Unlike several other young people we had met, this couple had actually traveled to Western Europe (despite all the visa troubles) and were aware of the sense that European citizens are not denied the basic freedoms and that there is always a higher force to turn to in case of possible injustice.
A lot of Ukrainians told us about how the corruptive thinking is working in all levels of their everyday life – from their own government to higher education establishments – and that it is easy to get away with pretty much everything while you have enough power or money in your hands. Some people – nicknamed titushky by Ukrainian people – are ready to support the president and provoke fights with the protesters throughout the country6. Later they gather by the local municipalities to be rewarded for their “support”. People we met were tired of the fact that this kind of non-sense is even possible. European Union economical restrictions are not the main topic of Ukrainians now. Actually, European Union is not the main thing in their minds at all, although many people kept asking us about life as Union members. It seems that it is the basic rights people are currently fighting for although many of them are more troubled by their indigence so the purposes for protesting are different. But one must be emphasized – during these two weeks in Kiev, I had not met anyone that would support the current government policy. Although I am fully aware that many people in Ukraine are against the protesters, I simply did not meet them on my way.
Today is our last day in Kiev. The winter is freezing and makes it unbearable to be outside for more than half an hour, but the shouts can still be heard coming from the Maidan. This had been an incredibly exciting time to be in the Ukrainian capital. However – it is easy for us. We will return home, safe and sound while these people have their home here. And it seems quite certain that they will keep gathering in Maidan and elsewhere every day until their desire for more democratic and just Ukraine will be fulfilled. It is pretty utopistic to believe that the protests will simply erase all the human vices of greed and desire for power, but somehow it seems that after some time Ukraine will be of those countries where freedom, democracy and justice will no longer be something to fight for, but something that every citizen has rights to.
Kiev, January 28 2014
1- http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-end-democratic-decade/25233555.html
2- http://euroradio.fm/en/berkut-fighters-assault-red-cross-centre-and-shoot-medics-video
3- http://mashable.com/2014/01/25/kidnappings-ukraine/
4- http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-end-democratic-decade/25233555.html
5- http://observers.france24.com/content/20131204-agent-provocateurs-infiltrating-ukraine-protest