Euromaidan

In winter 2013 and 2014 Ukrainians overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych after he abandoned an association agreement with the European Union under Russian pressure.

Overview

Yanukovych refusal to sign the EU association agreement on 21 November 2013 brought students to the Maidan in Kiev. The 30 November riot police beating of sleeping students transformed a pro-European protest into a national uprising against police violence and oligarchic rule. As barricades grew, negotiations failed, and snipers killed around a hundred protesters on 18 to 20 February 2014. A negotiated transition collapsed when Yanukovych fled to Russia on 22 February. The new government moved toward Europe, and Russia answered by seizing Crimea and fomenting war in the Donbas. The revolution and its aftermath redrew European security politics and launched the largest conflict on the continent since 1945.