History of conflict

Preparation of the opposition to staging protests

Suspension of the preparation to signing the Agreement on the Association with the EU

The government of Ukraine announced that the preparation to concluding the Agreement on the Association with the EU had been suspended as that not corresponding the national interests of Ukraine. The decision was officially made public by the Prime Minister N. Azarov....

21.11.13 00:00 

Network’s call for an immediate protest

Right after the Prime Minister’s speech in the network there appeared and instantly spread calls for an immediate protest action. By the evening on Maidan there gathered about 1,000 persons demanding for the Association to be signed. The opposition leaders V. Klitschko, A. Yatsenyuk and O. Tyagnibok addressed to the gathering with speeches....

21.11.13 01:00 

First meetings and tent camps

The baton of students’ protest was picked up in Lvov, Uzhgorod, Ivano-Frankovsk, Chernovtsy, Sumy, Vinnitsa, Krivoy Rog, Cherkassy, Kharkov, Odessa, Kherson and Donetsk. In Kiev, despite the authorities’ decision, a tent camp was set up (15 army tarpaulin tents and 20 canopies for a perpetual campaign), Andrey Paruby became the commandant of it. Students’ tents also appeared in Lvov where they were taken much more favourably by the local authorities. The principal of the Lvov National University called students directly to mass protests....

22.11.13 00:00 

First calls for the resignation of the government and clashes with the police

In Kiev there was held a mass meeting in support of Eurointegration. Protesters adopted a resolution demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister N.Azarov as one who had betrayed interests of the country by his refusal to sign the Association with the EU at the summit in Vilnius. The opposition MP A.Turchinov announced the protest campaign to be perpetual and proposed those gathered there to go to the Administration of the President. There a part of the protesters tried to break through into the building of the Administration, having provoked the first clashes with the police special unit Berkut....

24.11.13 00:00 

Timoshenko’s perpetual hunger-strike

Imprisoned Julia Timoshenko went on a perpetual hunger-strike ‘demanding that Yankovich should sign the Agreement on the Association and the Free Trade Zone with the EU’....

25.11.13 00:00 

Students’ strike

Students went on strike. The principal of the Kiev-Moghilyanskaya Academy called on students to actively express their civil position, which was followed by the administration of the Kiev National University permitting its students to miss classes. However, journalists speaking to students on Maidan found out that the majority of them had come from Lvov, Ternopol and Ivano-Frankovsk....

26.11.13 00:00 

Yanukovich’s explanation and the Crimea’s reaction to the actions of the opposition

The President Yanukovich gave an interview to the main TV channels in which he stated that the Agreement on the Association with the EU as it was didn’t meet the national interests of Ukraine. Asked about Euromaidan Yankovich answered that no force would be used against peaceful and legal actions; the main demand for participants of manifestations was to break no law, resort to no violence and make no attempts to seize the official structures. The Supreme Council of the Autonomic Republic of the Crimea supported the decision of the government of Ukraine, criticised the actions of the opposition parties ‘that speculate on European values … inflate hysteria over the Agreement on the Association and resort to the policy of blackmail…’...

27.11.13 00:00 

The summit in Vilnius

The summit of the Eastern Partnership took place in Vilnius where the Agreement on the Association of Ukraine with the EU wasn’t signed....

28.11.13 00:00 

Maidan dispersal

In the evening the opposition took away all the equipment from the Maidan stage, the leaders of the opposition left the square as well. In the tent camp there were about 200 protesters left, they were settling for the night. At 3 am the Berkut was alerted with the order to handle the dwellers of the tent camp without gloves in case of their resistance. At 4 am utility services got the order to set up the Christmas tree on Maidan. Among the awakened protesters there turned out to be people armed with clubs, pepper sprays and tins of peas and corn with which they attacked the Berkut. On the square there instantly appeared a camera crew of the TV channel Inter the report of which captured exclusively the counteractions of the Berkut, was shown on all the channels the following morning and spread in the Internet like a wildfire. During the Maidan dispersal 79 persons were hurt; only 6 of them turned out to be students....

30.11.13 00:00