February 18-19 five years ago are among the most tragic days in the Ukrainian history: the bloody confrontation, the attacks of titushky and later even of the armed forces. On the third day, February 20, the security forces killed the largest number of participants of the Revolution of Dignity – people who wanted to change the system and their country. Read more in the reactions from DUMKA.
These days, it is difficult to find a long post on this topic: it is too painful for everyone who followed the events and especially to those who took part in them, defending their own freedom and the freedom of their country before the bloody system. Volodymyr Viatrovych, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, stressed that Maidan is faith – often irrational, but eventually victorious. In the end, Maidan is about freedom.
The people’s deputy Volodymyr Ariev also noted that those days from five years ago are too protracted to publish pretentious memoirs. However, the politician admitted that the only thing that he wants for our country is not to turn from this way which back then seemed infeasible through smoke of barricades.
The political expert Olexsiy Minakov noted in his turn that before the elections these days can be used by politicians more cynically than usual. Speculations are inevitable. Some will keep quiet at least because at that time they were working in Moscow, some will inevitably talk about “the coup” or just like Dmytro Hordon wish that the Revolution… never happened.
The latter is what outrages the expert the most because it is quite difficult to understand: how can we assume that everything was in vain? Minakov is convinced: indeed, we didn’t manage to reach all the goals, but in general, Ukraine has survived in terms of incredible turbulence and has become stronger. And the Ukrainians proved that they can go till the end and win.
The people’s deputy and a former journalist Mustafa Nayyem said that in fact, all these organized groups of titushky could be.. absolutely legal. The current legislation allows creating such armed groups, however, dullness, laziness, and ignorance of the laws prevented Yanukovych’s team from thinking of it.
However, it is important that these laws work nowadays, which means that they need to be changed as soon as possible.
The public activist Serhiy Sternenko admitted: these days it is difficult to just do ordinary things because it seems that the air is still permeated with tension and the echo of the terrible days from five years ago. Sternenko is convinced that although the central square of the country is no longer a battlefield, the revolution of dignity goes on till this day, primarily in the minds of each of us.
Bohdan Petrenko, the deputy director of the Ukrainian Institute of Research of Extremism, stressed that Maidan didn’t stand for social issues or raising living standards: the first protesters stood for the European choice and against the absorption of the country by supranational entities, which ultimately led to the Kremlin’s control over Kyiv. And Maidan coped with this role.
Ulana Suprun, the acting Minister of health, is convinced that nowadays, just like five years ago, the struggle for dignity goes on, taking place inside each of us, when we have to face injustice or fight for the truth.
Iryna Herashchenko, the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, is sure: we are still obliged to do a lot of things for the victory of Ukraine instead of the anti-Maidan.
But the journalist Marina Daniluk-Yarmolaeva said: there are topics that should not be touched – despite the elections and the time. The author is convinced: those who saw the blood with their own eyes, those who had the fingers covered in soot, and those who feared to die from the hands of titushky, will not touch this topic in vain.
Indeed, many people could not find appropriate words these days. For example, the storyteller Sashko Lirnyk, the social activist Vitaliy Ustymenko and the like.
And as told by the blogger Olena Dobrovolska, these days gave us understanding that those people who you considered to be on your side your whole life, were never actually on your side. And that just in a few days and a few nights the people that you haven’t met in person may change your little world forever.
And as the blogger and the politician Vitalii Chepynoga noted, the anniversary of the Maidan is given to the Ukrainians so that at least once a year they stop squabbling with each other and recall the time when we were all together, on the same side of the barricades.
And lastly: Maidan is not a single action, it is a state of public consciousness. This was written by the musician Ivan Lenio, and it is extremely difficult to disagree with it.
Reactions were collected by Stepan the Goat
