The first night without Yanukovych, February 22, they walked her to a flame-engulfed Maidan as a symbol of the fact that Ukraine is no longer the same. But it was for the others to decide for whom to open the prison doors and for whom — the presidential palace gates.
Yuliya Timoshenko: "I didn't even recognize Kiev. Burned cars, barricades. But it's a different Ukraine". The emotional, tear-filled former prisoner still didn’t understand that in a "different Ukraine", her place was in the backyard, and she was taken out from the Kharkov prison for one-time use. They used her like all those who paved the way to power for the others with sticks, stones, and bodies on the streets of a burning Kiev.
Inhaling the black smoke of burning tires, pouring down death with bottles, they were tearing Kiev to pieces, blindly believing that later, after their victory, they will put it back together under the guidance of those who drove them to the riot shields of the "Berkut" special police.
"Not one step back! Glory to Ukraine!" Who was aware back then that, to these cries along the bridge of Khreshchatyk street, they were tearing Ukraine itself to pieces? Perhaps, McCain knew something, basking in the applause of Maidan, or Nuland, who showed up in person to confirm that 5 billion dollars was spent properly. But certainly not the thousands, who, chanting "Ukraine is Europe", obediently followed the hundreds, who were marching to the sound of their own drums, to a song which didn’t have a single line about a "peaceful ending".
"If tomorrow, before 10 o'clock, Yanukovich doesn't present his resignation, we will start an armed assault. I swear it!" Parasyuk, who was one of that hundred, is now in command of the blockade of Donbass. He calls for a new Maidan despite having earned a parliamentary seat during the previous one. Most of the others have only small parts in this play, this so-called "Revolution of Dignity", roles for which there is no reward in the form of a bright future, the only roles remaining are those of cannon fodder.
"They kept five or six thousand fighters on Maidan for three months. They had to be fed, they needed water, they had to be paid. This was a serious amount of money. And now we are being told that it was a popular uprising. Oh, really?"
But people were very useful for the revolution. Especially for those who wouldn’t have been allowed to come to power otherwise. Sooner or later, this power will have to be shared with them.
(Kiev, Ukraine, December 2013) Five main barricades, the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth. About 1,200 people are defending Maidan at night.
Andrei Porubey is a nationalist with 15 years of experience. In December 2013, he was yet to become the Security Council Secretary and the Speaker of Rada. His name wasn't yet associated with the massacre in Odessa and all the snipers, who, two months later, shot at Kievans on Institutskaya Street from the buildings under his control. But his fighters were already working out the tactics of the fight, which would bring Maidan its first victims, when fire would cover buses, tires, and lines of "Berkut" police.
"The line of fire was maintained between the rioters and the special forces all night. Still, "Berkut" police officers are being hit with stones and Molotov cocktails". They leave the fire just to add more fuel in the form of tires. Maidan needed a blood sacrifice as much as it needed air. The first murder was at the barricades on Grushevskogo Street, it was from a distance of two meters using weapons which the police didn’t have. It could have worked as a cold shower if the negotiations were a target for those who drove the crowd to attack. It was useful as a fuel for hatred. "We will destroy stuff, burn stuff down, and fight for justice. Because we have nothing to lose and nowhere to retreat to. I remember a lad… February 18, when we were going down the stairs, he was shot in the leg. Along the way, he wept and asked for only one thing: Not to cut off his leg, because when he got home, his mother would be mad".
Kiev was given to nationalists, who raised a banner of hatred over Maidan. Its red and black background already had "Right Sector" written on it, and its leaders were no longer hiding their faces. Dmytro Yarosh, another future member of parliament, came out of the shadows to explain who actually pulled the strings during the protest: "70 percent of what they said was our demands. Because on Maidan, we are the force that can achieve real results".
The authorities, whose time was running out, woke up only when the roar of rioting became the only sound in Kiev. Only when Donetsk, Kherson, and Sevastopol threatened to say goodbye to the state, and only when with cobblestones, cocktails, and violent attacks, they were put against the gates of the administration, they finally gave the security services the order to counterattack.
That night, it seemed that the revolution, which was driven to a small open space near the podium by "Berkut" police, would burn in its own fire. But Yanukovych was already receiving calls. From the French, Germans, Poles, and only he knows from who else. He is the only one that knows about the threats. And he retreated. "Berkut" police were stopped one step short of victory.
In reality, the fact that the tents caught fire during one of the attacks even helped Maidan. Now, there is a line of defense, through which it will be very difficult to pass for "Berkut" police. They throw tires and anything that can burn, and build obstacles to prevent special forces from getting through to Maidan. The rally continues, but it resembles something that happened on Grushevskogo Street, especially when tires were burned to prevent special forces from approaching the protesters. The next morning marked the bloodiest page of Maidan. Footage of people being under sniper fire on Institutskaya Street were watched all over the world, which didn't care that the "Berkut" weren't armed, and that bullets were shot into their backs. The dozens of people killed demoralized those in power. Yanukovych signed everything under the supervision of the European ambassadors: early elections, and, most importantly, the withdrawal of special forces units from the capital. The deserted town was immediately occupied by the militants.
"An hour after the signing, they began to storm the Cabinet of Ministers, and an hour and a half after the signing, they began to storm the Supreme Council, that is, it was an armed seizure of power. And around two hours later, they stormed the Presidential Administration". The streets of Kiev met the dawn of the first day of a different Ukraine with stony silence. After three months of fighting, it looked as if it was catching up on some sleep. It would need it for the next three years of the war.
