Today, on February 18, 11 years ago, a confrontation began in Ukraine on Independence Square in Kyiv, which resulted in the deaths of more than 80 people over the course of 3 days, writes UNN.
Details
The confrontation in Ukraine on February 18-21, 2014 was a violent confrontation between security forces and protesters, the final stage of the Revolution of Dignity. According to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, 82 people died during the confrontation (71 demonstrators and 11 law enforcement officers), and 622 people were injured.
In the morning of February 18, 2014, the "Peaceful Offensive" - a march of thousands of Euromaidan participants to the Verkhovna Rada, where a regular session was to open, with the aim of considering amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine to limit the powers of the President. Opposition factions had been blocking the parliamentary session since the morning, demanding that the first issue on the agenda be the consideration of the act of renewal of the 2004 Constitution.
Around 8:30 am, protesters began gathering on Independence Square, from where they marched in a ten-thousand-strong column to the Verkhovna Rada building on Hrushevskoho Street to demand a return to the 2004 Constitution and punishment for those responsible for abusing Euromaidan activists.
At the corner of Hrushevskoho and Kreposnyi Val streets, the demonstrators stormed the police cars that were blocking the convoy's path, thus overcoming the cordon of the internal troops. On Shovkovnychna Street, Berkut special forces used special means against the demonstrators: stun grenades and Fort-500T pump-action rifles, in particular, the security forces climbed to the roof of the building at 17/5 Instytutska Street and threw stun grenades and shot from there.
The protesters threw stones and firecrackers at the police, and set fire to two KAMAZ trucks blocking the roadway.
Around 1 p.m., Berkut began to push the protesters down Instytutska Street towards Maidan Nezalezhnosti, pushing the protesters to Kriposny Lane, blocking Instytutska Street from the side of Lipska Street as well. In turn, the protesters began to build barricades at the intersection of Instytutska and Bankova streets from paving stones and in Mariinsky Park from scrap materials.
At 18:00, an assault on the airborne barricade from the direction of European Square began using an APC with a Berkut crew. The APC was met by Maidan defenders with Molotov cocktails, and the assault was stalled.
Around midnight, the Trade Union Building caught fire. According to eyewitnesses, the fire was set by Berkut officers who brought incendiary mixture in white canisters to the roof of the building.
The confrontations resulted in the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency of Ukraine, his flight to Russia on February 21, 2014, the restoration of the 2004 Constitution, the resignation of a number of ministers and heads of the RSA, and the formation of a new government.