Reflections on EuroMaidan by Klementia Dymyd

Ukrainians, mainly students and young people, protested peacefully on the main square of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, for joining the European Union. They were brutally beaten by the police Special Forces called Berkut. Yanukovych, the Pro-Russian president of Ukraine, reacted as though the Berkut actions were right. That was “enough” for the Ukrainian people and many more came out to protest.

The peaceful protests changed into a revolution. On February 20, 2014 more than one hundred protesters were killed in Kyiv by uniformed snipers. Two days later, the Kremlin supported Ukrainian president, now on the Interpol wanted list, fled to Russia. 

Shortly after, Russian Special Forces annexed Crimea and Russian leader Vladimir Putin began to provide separatists in Eastern Ukraine with military support. He continues to wage a hybrid war on Ukraine to destabilize the country that is seeking association with the European Union.



George Soros, a prominent supporter of democratic ideals writes: 

I have been to Ukraine four times since the victory of Maidan. The new Ukraine really exists. It is a unique experiment in participatory democracy sustained by a spirit of volunteerism. 

That spirit first manifested itself on Maidan and it has continued. What makes it unique is that it finds expression not only in fighting but also in constructive work. Many people in government and parliament are volunteers who have given up their well paying jobs in order to serve their country.

Volunteers are helping the one million internally displaced people, and working as advisors to ministers and to local governments. I have spent most of my time with them and I am impressed by their maturity and determination.

They are up against the old Ukraine that is entrenched in the bureaucracy and the oligarchy, who are in cahoots. And of course they are up against the determinate hostility of Putin who wants to destabilize Ukraine at all costs.


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Klementia Dymyd or “Clem” is a young artist from Lviv, Ukraine. Her photographs from EuroMaidan in Kiev’s Independence Square are a personal account from the center of the movement in Ukraine dubbed the “Revolution of Dignity”.