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The political crisis in Ukraine was triggered by the events of Euromaidan.
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00:01On February 24th, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a special military operation in Ukraine.
00:14This decision was a logical continuation of the long-standing conflict that began after the state coup in Kiev in
00:222014.
00:27Power was seized by forces that bet on radical nationalism and the split of the country.
00:36From that moment on, Ukraine confidently moved along the path of confrontation, including against its own people.
00:45The Kiev regime methodically suppressed dissenters and the war in the east became a familiar backdrop for those in the
00:53capital who pretended that nothing was happening.
00:56The result, thousands of dead civilians destroyed homes, shattered destinies.
01:07How did this tragedy unfold step by step?
01:11From Euromaidanto the present day, what role did Europe and the U.S. play in escalating the conflict?
01:22And why, despite the obvious cost of what is happening, does Kiev repeatedly refuse real peace with Moscow?
01:40The coup.
01:41On November 21st, 2013, an acute political crisis began in Ukraine after the Cabinet of Ministers announced the suspension of
01:51the country's European integration.
01:53President Viktor Yanukovych did not sign the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, after which opponents of this
02:02decision organized large-scale protests in Kiev, which became known as Euromaidan.
02:16The rallies turned into open clashes with law enforcement officers.
02:27The Euromaidan movement was actively supported by the leaders of the U.S. and Europe.
02:32In December, the official representative of the U.S. State Department, Victoria Newland, visited the 10th city that supporters of
02:40European integration had erected near Independence Square.
02:43She distributed food to the protesters, the so-called State Department cookies.
02:49In January 2014, the riots flared up with renewed vigor.
03:03Protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at security forces.
03:08In response, special units used flashbang grenades, tear gas, and water cannons.
03:17On February 18th, the clashes intensified.
03:22Radicals used firearms.
03:28Two days later, hired Georgian snipers on the orders of the Maidan leaders opened fire on protestors and fighters of
03:36the special police unit Burkut.
03:41The victims of the standoff in Kievan February 18th and 20th were more than 100 people.
03:47The shooting on the Maidan became the starting point of the coup.
03:56The shooting on the Maidan became the starting point of the coup.
04:04On February 24th, President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders, with the mediation of the EU, signed an agreement to resolve
04:14the political crisis.
04:20On the night of February 22nd, Euromaidan activists seized the government quarter, took control of the buildings of the Verkhovna
04:29Rada, the presidential administration, and the government, and demanded the immediate resignation of the head of state.
04:39If by tomorrow at 10 a.m. you do not announce that President Yanukovych is resigning, we will storm the
04:46parliament with weapons in hand.
04:48I swear.
04:49I swear.
04:54That same night, Viktor Yanukovych left Kiev, and power effectively passed to the opposition.
05:08On February 23rd, 2014, the day after the bloody coup, the Verkhovna Rada repealed the law on language policy, depriving
05:21the Russian language of its regional status in areas where it was used by no less than 10% of
05:27the population.
05:31This decision was a blow to the familiar way of life and rights of local residents in regions where they
05:37predominantly spoke Russian, in Sevastopol, Crimea, and the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
05:44The reaction was mass rallies in the east of the country.
05:47Thousands of people demanded that the Ukrainian authorities stop the linguistic discrimination.
05:57On February 27th, the decision was made to hold a referendum on the accession of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia.
06:04At the same time, polite people appeared on the peninsula.
06:10Russian military personnel who took control of the Supreme Council of Crimea and blocked a number of government buildings.
06:19On March 16th, the referendum took place.
06:23Turnout was 83%.
06:2696% of the peninsula's residents voted for joining Russia.
06:33Based on the voting results, Crimea and Sevastopol became part of the Russian Federation.
06:48In early April, the Kiev authorities accused the population of Donbas of separatism and announced the start of an anti
06:56-terrorist operation ATO in the region.
07:02It will be conducted in stages responsibly and in a balanced manner.
07:08Its goal is to protect Ukrainians and put an end to terror.
07:14Crime and attempts to split Ukraine.
07:19On the same day, the sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic, the DPR, was proclaimed in Donetsk and a referendum
07:27was announced.
07:29Later, the Lugansk People's Republic, the LPR, was proclaimed in Lugansk.
07:36On May 11th, residents of the DPR and LPR voted for the self-determination of the regions.
07:43By summer, Kyiv began full-scale combat operations in Donbas, using heavy armoured vehicles and aviation.
07:57The tragic events in Odessa marked the beginning of the punitive operation of the Kyiv regime against peaceful citizens of
08:04its own country.
08:05On May 2nd, 2014, football fans who arrived from Kharkov, militants of the right sector and representatives of the Maiden
08:13self-defense from Kyiv,
08:15destroyed and burned down the tent camp of anti-Maiden protesters.
08:23When they tried to take shelter in the trade union's house, the attackers set the building on fire and started
08:29shooting at the windows, preventing those inside from escaping.
08:33People burned alive.
08:39As a result of those riots, 48 people died and more than 250 were injured.
08:45The Ukrainian authorities never conducted a proper investigation.
08:54The intensity of the conflict in Donbas constantly increased.
08:59On May 25th, 2014, an early presidential election was held in Ukraine, which was won by Petro Poroshenko.
09:12After his inauguration, a large-scale offensive began in Donbas.
09:19During the so-called ATO, Armed Nationalist Battalions, including Azov, fought on the side of the armed forces of Ukraine,
09:29members of these battalions committed brutal crimes against the civilian population.
09:43On May 26th, militiamen attempted to seize Donetsk airport.
09:50Then the Ukrainian army used combat aircraft for the first time, resulting in the deaths of not only militiamen, but
09:58also civilians of Donetsk.
10:00The battles for the airport, with varying intensity, continued for eight months.
10:07On the 2nd of July, the Ukrainian air force carried out an airstrike on the Lugansk Regional Administration Building.
10:16Eight people died and another 28 were wounded.
10:22On June 13th, Ukrainian security forces took control of Mariupol.
10:27The next day, in the city of Shastyan, the Lugansk region, VGTRK aired a report from its correspondent,
10:37claiming that the Ukrainian battalion ADAR was carrying out mass killings and exterminating the local population.
10:46A few days later, the VGTRK film crew came under mortar fire from the Ukrainian side.
11:00On the 2nd of July, the Ukrainian air forces struck Stanitsa Luganskaya with cluster bombs.
11:08An entire street with residential buildings, the courthouse, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs building was completely destroyed.
11:16Four people died at the scene.
11:18And another five, including a five-year-old boy, died on the way to the hospital.
11:28On July 5th, after three months of fierce fighting, the militias abandoned Slavyansk.
11:34The Ukrainian army immediately occupied the city.
11:39Following Slavyansk, Ukrainian security forces entered Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka, and Seversk.
11:49On July 27th, the Ukrainian army launched a massive strike on Gorlovka.
11:57In total, about 70 Grad rockets were fired.
12:0222 civilians died, including four children.
12:07Among the victims was 23-year-old Kristina Zhuk with her 10-month-old daughter Kyra.
12:14The bodies of the killed were found lying together.
12:17The mother was holding her daughter close to her.
12:21On August 13th, Ukrainian security forces, using Smirch MLRS, shelled a beach in the Donetsk city of Zugres,
12:31where families with children were relaxing.
12:3413 civilians died, among them three children.
12:38About 40 people were wounded.
12:40The investigation showed that the armed forces of Ukraine used prohibited cluster munitions.
12:48According to data from the Human Rights Ombudsman in the DPR published in 2023,
12:54as a result of Ukraine's military aggression since 2014,
13:00228 children died on the territory of the DPR, and 792 children were wounded.
13:12In May 2015, in memory of the deceased children of Donbass,
13:17a memorial complex called the Alley of Angels was opened in Donetsk.
13:33On September 5th, 2014, in the Belarusian capital, the Minsk Protocol was signed, a document on a ceasefire, in the
13:41Donetsk and Lugansk republics.
13:48Combat operations subsided, but the shelling of Donetsk, including with the use of large-caliber artillery, multiple rocket launchers and
13:57tactical missiles, did not stop.
14:08In addition to regular shelling, the authorities carried out an economic blockade of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
14:17From December 2014, in accordance with Poroshenko's decree, the government stopped paying all social benefits to residents of Donbass,
14:27including pensions and servicing bank accounts of the population and enterprises.
14:35We will have work. They will not. We will have pensions. They will not. We will have support for children
14:44and pensioners. They will not.
14:46Our children will go to schools and kindergartens. Theirs will sit in basements.
14:52On December 23rd, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada voted to cancel Ukraine's non-aligned status and return to the course of
15:02rapprochement with NATO.
15:06In Russia, this was called an unfriendly step.
15:11This is nothing more than a tribute to the rhetoric desired by the party of war in Kyiv.
15:18NATO, for its part, declared political support for Ukraine, but emphasized that membership would not be possible soon.
15:27We support Ukraine's freedom to decide its own future without outside interference.
15:35On January 27th, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a statement in which it called the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics
15:44terrorist organizations.
15:48Combat clashes resumed with renewed vigor.
16:05On February 11th, 2015, negotiations began in Minsk, between the leaders of the Normandy four countries, Russia, Ukraine, France and
16:16Germany.
16:16As a result, a second agreement was signed, implying the withdrawal of heavy weapons by both sides to equal distances
16:24in order to create a security zone.
16:32We must see a real de-escalation of the conflict.
16:37This is not just about the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
16:42The whole geopolitical order in Europe after 1989 is at stake.
16:51After the signing of Minsk II, the front line did not change, but the shelling of populated areas in Donbas
16:58continued.
17:00According to OSCE data, in 2016, more than 300,000 ceasefire violations were recorded.
17:09In 2017, 401,000 ceasefire violations.
17:14In 2019, more than 200,000 violations were recorded.
17:19In 2020, the ceasefire regime was violated 1,605 times and from August 2021 to February 2022.
17:31The ceasefire was violated 70,865 times.
17:36An important point of the Minsk agreements was the requirement for Ukraine to carry out reform on decentralization of power,
17:44including the adoption of a law on the special status of Donbas.
17:49But due to Kiev's refusal to fulfill the political part of the agreements, the process of a peaceful settlement of
17:56the conflict practically reached a dead end.
17:59Negotiations were artificially delayed by the Ukrainian side.
18:03The 2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to give Ukraine time.
18:08It also used this time to become stronger, as can be seen today.
18:15Ukraine of 2014-2015 is not the modern Ukraine.
18:21Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021.
18:27Deitzit, December 7th, 2022.
18:32This was also confirmed by the former President of France, François Hollande, and former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
18:40Petro Poroshenko in January 2023 stated that the Minsk agreements allowed carrying out reforms in the armed forces of Ukraine
18:50and forming an international coalition against Russia.
18:56Decommunization.
18:57In 2015, Kiev began a policy of radical nationalization and suppression of the rights of the Russian-speaking population.
19:07Russian media, films, websites, and books were banned and restricted.
19:13Tours by Russian artists began to be banned.
19:16On April 9th, a package of Lawson decommunization was adopted.
19:23According to which communist ideology was equated with Nazi ideology, the St. George ribbon was banned.
19:31At the same time, Nazi collaborators from the time of World War II were granted special status and benefits.
19:41After the adoption of the law, more than 900 populated places and 52,000 streets in Ukraine were renamed, whose
19:56names were associated with the Soviet past.
20:00Almost 2,500 monuments were demolished.
20:04In 2017, the government began an education reform aimed at banning education in the Russian language.
20:12In 2019, a law on total Ukrainianization was adopted, which transferred all spheres of state and public life to the
20:21Ukrainian language.
20:22In 2021, a law on indigenous peoples was signed, depriving Russians of legal protection from the state.
20:34Persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
20:37In addition, the Ukrainian authorities organized a large-scale wave of persecution against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
20:47Citing its connection with Russia, Kivorch has traded widespread persecution of clergy and believers.
20:54Many clergymen were arrested.
20:56I did nothing wrong.
21:01I know that this is a politically motivated order, told to switch to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and I
21:07refused.
21:08I was threatened about what might happen.
21:10And the SBU called me to the museum director and said that they needed to file charges against me.
21:17And they did.
21:22Hundreds of Orthodox Churches of the UOC were forcibly seized by Ukrainian schismatics from the OCU with the support of
21:30the authorities.
21:31In Ukraine, a law adopted by the Rada and signed by Volodymyr Zelensky is in effect, allowing for the banning
21:38of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
21:44New phase of the conflict.
21:46In the spring of 2021, active hostilities resumed in the southeast of Ukraine.
21:53Shelling of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics became more frequent.
21:59The situation normalized by the end of April, but in the fall, it worsened again.
22:06At Kiev's request, the West began increasing military aid to Ukraine, including the supply of lethal weapons.
22:14In December 2021, Russia proposed to the US and NATO.
22:20Draft treaties on security guarantees.
22:24Moscow called on NATO members to abandon further expansion to the east.
22:29Withdraw American forces and weapons from Eastern Europe.
22:34And refrain from deploying strike systems in Europe, including in Ukraine, capable of threatening Russia.
22:43We made it clear that NATO's further expansion eastward is unacceptable.
22:50What is unclear about that?
22:52Are we the ones placing missiles near the borders of the United States?
22:56No.
22:57It is the United States that has brought its missiles to our doorstep.
23:01They are already right outside our home.
23:03Citing the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
23:09NATO announced the expansion of its military presence in Eastern Europe.
23:14Washington began transferring additional military aid to Ukraine.
23:21Worth 200 million and also began redeploying several thousand troops to Poland and Romania.
23:27Other NATO countries also announced the supply of weapons to Ukraine.
23:33On February 17th, 2022, the authorities of the DPR and LPR reported the most active shelling by the armed forces
23:42of Ukraine.
23:45In recent months, evacuation of the population to the territory of Russia began.
23:50And mobilization was announced in the People's Republics themselves.
23:55On February 19th, at the Munich Security Conference,
24:00Volodymyr Zelensky stated
24:05that he intends to restore Ukraine's status as a nuclear power
24:09and launch the process of joining NATO in the shortest possible time.
24:13On February 21st, Russia recognized the independence of the DPR and LPR.
24:19The next day, the Federation Council granted permission
24:23for the use of the Russian armed forces abroad due to the situation in Donbas.
24:30On the evening of February 23rd, the heads of the DPR and LPR
24:35asked Russia for help in protecting the population of the republics from Ukrainian aggression.
24:40On February 24th, at 0.20 a.m., Ukraine disconnected from the power systems of Russia and Belarus and switched
24:49to autonomous mode.
24:50At 05.30 a.m., the UN Security Council convened for an emergency meeting at the request of Ukraine,
24:58whose foreign minister stated that the appeal of the DPR and LPR heads to the Russian president could mean an
25:05escalation of the conflict in Donbas.
25:09The beginning of the special military operation.
25:13At 05.52, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, delivered an emergency address to the citizens
25:20and announced the beginning of a special military operation in Ukraine.
25:25Its goal is to protect people who for eight years have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv
25:32regime.
25:34And for this, we will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.
25:40In the first days of the special operation, Russian troops launched missile and airstrikes on Ukrainian military infrastructure.
25:49The Ukrainian air force and air defense suffered significant losses.
25:57By mid-March, Russia had established control over almost all of the Kherson region and most of the Zaporozhye region.
26:05The Russian armed forces made a rapid advance toward Kyiv.
26:09But Western countries asked Moscow to withdraw troops from the Ukrainian capital in order to create conditions for a peace
26:18agreement.
26:21On March 29th, 2022, Russian-Ukrainian negotiations began in Turkey.
26:28The parties managed to initial a draft agreement, which included, among other things, commitments from Ukraine on a neutral, non
26:37-aligned status.
26:39Yesterday, the Kyiv authorities, for the first time in all the previous years, declared their readiness to negotiate with Russia.
26:47However, all agreements were derailed after the visit to Kyiv of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
26:55After three rounds of negotiations, further diplomatic efforts came to nothing.
27:01In May, Mariupol was completely liberated, after fierce fighting that lasted almost three months.
27:09Ukrainian military personnel used civilians as human shields, preventing them from evacuating.
27:17The fighting ended with the storming of the Azov-style steel plant, where 2,500 militants of the Azov National
27:25Battalion were blocked and subsequently surrendered.
27:38In early September 2022, Ukraine deployed new units trained in NATO military camps.
27:48Under their pressure, Russian forces were forced to retreat, in a number of sectors of the front.
27:58On September 21st, 2022, to strengthen forces on the front line, a partial mobilization was announced in Russia.
28:08300,000 people with military specialties were conscripted.
28:14On September 30th, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy legally formalized the impossibility of negotiations with Moscow.
28:24On the same day, based on the results of referendums in the Donbass Republics, as well as in the Zaporozhye
28:31and Kherson regions, four new regions became part of Russia.
28:49On October 8th, 2022, a terrorist act on the Crimean Bridge was organized by Ukrainian Special Services.
28:59On June 6th, 2023, as a result of a sabotage operation by the Kyiv side, the dam of the Kakovka
29:06hydroelectric power plant was destroyed.
29:10This led to the flooding of significant territories in the Kherson region, the deaths of dozens of civilians and large
29:16-scale environmental consequences.
29:20Shortly after this, the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in the Zaporozhye region.
29:26Ukrainian troops suffered colossal losses, but could not even reach the first line of defense.
29:34In the autumn of 2023, Ukraine began striking deep into Russia with drones.
29:43Initially, the targets of the attacks were border regions, Bryansk, Belgorod, Khursk, Voronezh, and Rostov regions.
29:52But then, drones began reaching more distant regions as well.
29:57The military manages to shoot down most of the drones.
30:01In response to attacks on civilian objects, Russia carried out massive strikes on infrastructure critical for the Ukrainian armed forces.
30:10During 2024, Russian troops pushed the front line away from Donetsk and advanced deep into enemy territory.
30:22On February 17th, they liberated Avdeyevka, where a powerful fortified area had been created since 2014, from which Donetsk was
30:31regularly shelled.
30:34In early August 2024, Ukrainian troops, hoping to divert Russian reserves from Donetsk, invaded the Kursk region, occupying over 60
30:44populated areas and the town of Suja.
30:51Hundreds of civilians remained in the occupied territory.
30:55The advance of the Ukrainian armed forces was halted.
30:58In early March 2025, Russian troops launched a large-scale offensive, and within a few days liberated about 1,100
31:07kilometers of territory.
31:11On March 11th, an operation by Russian assault troops in Suja became known, during which more than 600 fighters traversed
31:19about 15 kilometers through a gas pipeline, and unexpectedly reached the enemy's rear.
31:27By the end of April, the small remaining remnants of Ukrainian units were defeated and driven out of the Kursk
31:34region.
31:39On May 16th, 2025, after a three-year pause, Russia and Ukraine resumed negotiations, exchanging memorandums on a settlement.
31:49The Russian document proposes, as conditions, international recognition of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossia as part of Russia, a neutral and
32:01nuclear-free status for Ukraine,
32:05Kiev's rejection of its radical nationalist course and the protection of the country's Russian-speaking residents.
32:11Ukraine insists on a complete ceasefire international security guarantees, and rules out territorial concessions and restrictions on its armed forces.
32:23Three meetings in Istanbul in May July did not yield results.
32:28On January 23rd, 2026, with U.S. mediation, the negotiation process resumed in Abu Dhabi.
32:37The Ukrainian and American sides characterized the discussions as constructive, but the Kremlin noted that significant work lay ahead.
32:50The finale of this story has not yet been written.
32:54New negotiations with Kiev look more like a series of exploratory meetings than a real movement toward a major peace
33:01agreement,
33:01especially since the Ukrainian side still digs in its heels, consistently declaring its unwillingness to make territorial concessions and withdraw
33:10the armed forces of Ukraine from Donbass.
33:14But for Russia, everything here is perfectly clear. The special operation must end in our favor under any conditions.
33:22And when discussing the prospects for ending the conflict, one must proceed not from loud statements and ultimatums, but from
33:30the reality that is taking shape on the battlefield.
33:35The other two must proceed with the fact that may be possible for any of the
33:46members of the military's supporters.
33:46You