COMMUNITY
SHAKING UP
Ukraine
W
hile this month’s film review discusses a fictional revolution, there is a real revolution
happening in Ukraine, with real bullets and real lives. We have hesitated to put forward
an article on the developments in Ukraine since they are so complex and are changing
so rapidly that a single magazine spread can barely address the key points and may be
out of date within days. But we feel it is important that Parvati Magazine, dedicated to an
awakened world, keeps its readers aware of this situation on the planet.
Viktor Yanukovych apparently won the presidency of Ukraine in 2004 in an election considered to have been rigged. Following protests called the “Orange Revolution”, that result
was set aside in favour of Viktor Yushchenko. But in the subsequent elections in 2010, Yanukovych ran again for president, and won, defeating both Yushchenko and prime minister
Yulia Tymoshenko, who claimed this election was also rigged. Soon after the election a
number of criminal cases were brought against Tymoshenko and she was jailed in 2011.
International observers considered this to be persecution.
The European Union signed deals on free trade and political association with Ukraine in
2012, but stated that the agreements would not be ratified unless Ukraine addressed concerns about “deterioration of democracy and the rule of law”, citing Tymoshenko’s case
among others.
In November 2013, the Ukrainian government under Yanukovych moved to suspend preparations to sign agreements with the European Union. This came after Russia - seeking to
build an alliance of ex-Soviet states - first offered significantly more financial incentive for
Ukraine to partner with them than the EU was offering, and then imposed trade sanctions
on Ukraine while it continued to consider the EU option.
When the Yanukovych government suspended these preparations and chose to seek a
partnership with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, protests began under a movement called
“Euromaidan”, calling for the resignation of Yanukovych and the restoration of the Ukrainian constitution as it stood from 2004 to 2010. This movement was characterized by younger,
university-educated people, active on social media, seeing themselves as not different
from other young people in the European Union.
When the police began dispersing Euromaidan protests with violence, the protests increased.
At their peak, some 400,000-800,000 people protested in Kyiv last December. Protesters