Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests

#Euromaidan protesters fill central Kyiv on Dec. 1, 2013. Photo by Alexandra Gnatoush. Used with permission.

#Euromaidan protesters fill central Kyiv on Dec. 1, 2013. Photo by Alexandra Gnatoush. Used with permission.

Live streams from Maidan – the main square were Ukrainians have been protesting since November 2013 – showed capital city Kyiv ablaze on the evening of February 18, 2014. Fierce clashes between police and protesters around the main square continued through the night. On February 19, the Kyiv Post reported that at least 25 people are dead and more than 1,000 are injured.

Protests in Ukraine escalated to a deadly stand-off between hundreds of thousands of citizens and government forces on February 18. Roads to the city were blocked by authorities, and the metro in Kyiv was stopped. The main opposition TV channel reported being taken off air.

What began as pro-EU demonstrations in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in November 2013, which went largely unnoticed by Western media, soon turned into a mass movement to “take back the country.”

Dubbed the #Euromaidan protests (#Євромайдан in Ukrainian and #Евромайдан in Russian), hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from all over the country have been gathering in Kyiv on weekends, thousands of whom maintain the movement during weekdays and nights. Faced with increasing crackdowns from the government – some brutal beatings by police have been captured on video – activists have been using social media, technology and mapping to sustain the protests and organize it into a mass movement. 

During the first weekend of protests in December, a major Ukrainian Internet provider, Volya-Cable, announced [uk] that it would increased the speed of Internet connection for its clients residing in the center of Kyiv and called on them to open Internet access for protesters to use. Many followed this advice and opened their WiFi connections, while other users released their WiFi passwords [uk] to the public.

On November 21, 2013 Ukraine's leaders abandoned a long-planned deal to move closer to the European Union. Russian threats to impose high tariffs and boycotts of the Ukrainian market were the immediate driver, but the move also exposed a long-simmering conflict about Ukraine's future.

2014 Coverage
Mar 24 Putin's Alleged “Ukraine Annexation Plan” Surfaces Online
Mar 23 Ukrainian Women's Sex Boycott Against Russian Men
Mar 22 Meet Crimea's New Anime Mascot, Natalia Poklonskaya
Mar 20 Are America's Latest Sanctions on Russia Based on a List by a Blogger?
Mar 18 10 Ways Russians and Ukrainians Reacted to Crimea Annexation Speech
Mar 17 Russian Officials Sanctioned Over Crimea Scoff on Twitter
Mar 16 What Does Russia's Top Blogger Think About Crimea?
Mar 16 Did Russia's Most Famous Actor Just Denounce Vladimir Putin?
Mar 15 Russia's Crimea Ballot Fraud that Wasn't
Mar 11 Facebook Status Criticizing Crimea Occupation Gets Journalist Fired
Mar 11 Russia's Crackdown Ahead of Crimea's Referendum
Mar 11 Prep the Tinfoil: Four Hoaxes Shaping Ukraine-Russia Conflict
Mar 07 15 Memes That Escalate the Crimean Crisis
Mar 07 GV Face: What's Next for Ukraine?
Mar 07 Russia's Chief Propagandist Vacations in Europe as War Looms
Mar 06 Russia's Fight on Oscar Night
Mar 05 Mother Russia, Jump the Gun
Mar 03 Russia PM Medvedev's Facebook Post on Ukraine
Mar 02 Ukrainians, Russians on Social Networks: ‘In Case of War, Everyone Will Lose!’
Mar 02 Ukrainian Journalists Take Regime's Corruption Public With YanukovychLeaks
Mar 01 The Russians Have Weaponized Photoshop
Mar 01 Ukraine's Capital After Yanukovich, Through a Kyrgyz Blogger's Eyes
Mar 01 Damn Provocateurs vs. Couch Potato Liberals: Russian Nationalists Debate Invading the Crimea
Feb 27 Chechen Dictator and Russian Nationalist NOT Taking Over Ukraine
Feb 26 Yanukovich's Fabulous Palace Familiar to Russians
Feb 26 From Kiev to Moscow: Russia's Tired Protest Antics
Feb 25 Iran Watches Ukraine With Envy and Dismay
Feb 24 Ukrainian Revolution Rattles Russian Nationalists
Feb 22 Ukraine's President Yanukovych Ousted and Parliament Reshuffled
Feb 22 Pro-Maidan Video Goes Viral Thanks to Pavel Durov, Russia's Zuckerberg
Feb 22 #EuroMaidan Medic Shot in Neck Lives to Tweet: “I Am Alive!”
Feb 21 Russian Politicians Stick to Their Guns as Ukraine Burns
Feb 20 #Euromaidan Protests Spread Throughout Ukraine After Explosion of Violence
Feb 20 Ukraine: “A Young Man Died in My Arms” #EuroMaidan
Feb 20 Russians Eye Ukrainian Turmoil with Hope, Fear
Feb 19 Follow the Escalation of Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests Live
Feb 18 To Hell with the Games: Russians Turn from Sochi to Ukraine
Feb 9 Media Overblowing Extreme Right's Role in Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests
Feb 7 Meet the Hard-Working Ukrainians Helping to Keep #Euromaidan Alive
Jan 31 PHOTOS: Humans of Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests
Jan 27 Russian Conspiracy Theories about Maidan's First Blood
Jan 27 Ukrainian #DigitalMaidan Activism Takes Twitter's Trending Topics by Storm
Jan 26 Four Biggest Misconceptions About #Euromaidan Protests in Ukraine (Quick Read)
Jan 26 Online Mapping of Spreading Unrest After Killing of Protesters in Ukraine
Jan 26 Independent Ukrainian Filmmakers Create #Euromaidan Documentaries (Quick Read)
Jan 18 INFOGRAPHIC: The New Anti-Democratic Laws of Ukraine (Quick Read)
Jan 17 Ukraine Stifles Freedom of Speech, Peaceful Protest With New Law
Jan 12 Human Rights Violations During Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests (Quick Read)

2013 Coverage
Dec 29 Ukrainian Protesters Play Lennon's “Imagine” Live to Riot Police (Quick Read)
Dec 26 Ukrainians Demand Justice for #Euromaidan's Beaten & Jailed Protesters
Dec 9 How Internet Tools Turned Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests Into a Movement
Dec 9 Reasons Behind Ukraine's Protests Run Deeper than “Pro-EU” or “Anti-Russian” (Quick Read)
Dec 9 Ukraine: Translators Organize on Facebook to Provide Live #Euromaidan Updates (Quick Read)
Dec 8 Ukrainian Civil Society Calls for International Investigation of Yanukovych’ Financial Activities (Quick Read)
Dec 6 “The Outside World Frightens Putin”: Russians Talk Ukraine (RuNet Echo)
Dec 6 As Ukraine's Protests Escalate, #Euromaidan Hashtag Lost in a Sea of Information
Dec 2 Why Ukraine's Revolution Won't Spread to Russia (RuNet Echo)
Dec 2 #Euromaidan Protests: ‘We Fight to Remain Ukraine’
Dec 1 Ukraine: Hackers Disable Government Websites in Protest of Police Brutality (Quick Read)
Nov 30 VIDEOS: Ukraine's Police Brutally Beat #Euromaidan Protesters to “Clear” Square
Nov 30 Ukraine: Understanding the #Euromaidan Protests (Quick Read)
Nov 29 #Euromaidan: How Ukraine Came to Be Rocked by Protests
Nov 25 Ukrainian pro-EU Protest Pleases the Russian Opposition (RuNet Echo)
Nov 22 Ukraine Suspends EU Deal, Protesters Fill Kyiv's Independence Square

Resources

  • Social media aggregator sites with latest videos and photos:

Maidan.in.ua [English]
Euromaidan.eu [Ukrainian] 
Euromaidan.tk [English, Ukrainian, Russian]
Euromaidan.com [Russian]

Twitter

@EuroMaydan [Ukrainian] | EuroMaydan_eng [English]