How Euromaidan Triggered Ukraine's Nine-Year War on Donbass
How Euromaidan Triggered Ukraine's Nine-Year War on Donbass
Sputnik International
The 2014 February coup d'etat became the trigger for the conflict in Ukraine, which Russia's special military operation was designed to end, Maidan witnesses from Donbass told Sputnik.
The "Russian Spring" in Donbass was a grassroots movement that began when the Euromaidan protests were raging in Kiev, Alexander Matyushin, call sign "Varyag," former commander of the "Varyag" detachment and war correspondent, told Sputnik.The protests started on November 21, 2013, with up to 2,000 protesters gathering in Kiev's central square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), after then-President Viktor Yanukovich refused to sign an EU association agreement.Roots of Split Between Western and Eastern Ukraine"Historically, the southeast [of Ukraine] has always gravitated towards Russia," Matyushin said. He recalled that in 1919, Vladimir Lenin, then head of the Soviet government, integrated Donbass into the Ukrainian Socialist Republic against the will of the region's population. After the collapse of the USSR, the 1994 plebiscite in Donbass concerning the region's federalization and making Russian a second official language was similarly ignored by the then-Ukrainian government.By the time of Euromaidan, the southeastern and northwestern parts of Ukraine had already been divided over the future of the country: the former sought to integrate with the EU, while the latter wanted to develop economic ties with Russia, according to Matyushin.The split became especially visible in 2004, when the Western-backed Orange Revolution on Maidan square brought Viktor Yushchenko to power in Kiev, the war correspondent pointed out."And all the economic vicissitudes starting from 2004, when there was a severance of relations [between Russia and Ukraine], i.e. the gas war, the sugar war, etc., hit Donbass very hard because its industries relied, in particular, on cheap Russian gas."In 2005, the Yushchenko government unilaterally initiated a review of tariffs for the transit of Russian gas to Europe through the territory of Ukraine, which led to the termination of a long-term Russo-Ukrainian gas contract that had fixed the fuel price for Kiev at $50 per 1,000 cubic meters until 2010. The increase in gas price dealt a blow to Donbass, which "blamed the Western Ukraine protege Yushchenko" for the economic turndown, Matyushin noted.According to the war correspondent, over 10 years – from 2004 to 2014 – the ideological and political rift between western and eastern Ukraine deepened dramatically. The 2014 Euromaidan events became the catalyst for the final division, he underscored.'Russian Spring': Grassroots Movement in DonbassThe 2013-14 Euromaidan movement was orchestrated and funded by Ukrainian oligarchs and their Western backers, who "tried from the very beginning to turn Ukraine into an 'anti-Russia,'" Matyushin explained."On December 3 [2013], I organized a rally on Lenin Square in the center of Donetsk, where a few pro-Russian activists gathered. We stated that we did not support the Maidan unrest, that it should be stopped," Matyushin recalled.After the regime change of February 22, 2014 in Kiev, Donbass activists scheduled a rally for the very next day."An important point is that its backbone was not elderly people, or even middle-aged people, but young people from 20 to 35 years old," he continued.Donetsk activists understood at the time that to confront Ukrainian nationalist and neo-Nazi gangs, they needed to create some sort of a center where people could go and coordinate their activities.On March 1, 2014, a rally on Lenin Square in Donetsk brought together over 10,000 people. Demonstrators carried a large Russian flag and the placards with slogans "Donbass with Russia" and "Crimea-Donbass-Russia." The protesters hoisted the Russian flag on the flagpole of the Donetsk Regional State Administration. On the steps of the building, newly elected People's Governor Pavel Gubarev announced that the people of Donbass wouldn’t recognize the illegitimate Kiev regime and would demand a referendum and elections. On April 7, 2014, the newly established Donetsk People's Republic declared independence.Kiev Regime's War Against Its Own PeopleThe regions of southeastern Ukraine did not accept the Maidan coup and launched protest movements. Crimea held a referendum to gain autonomy and rejoin Russia in March 2014. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Nikolaev, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Odessa, Gorlovka, Mariupol, and other cities.The Ukrainian junta responded with brutal attacks and military action against pro-Russian protesters.On April 14, 2014, a decree of Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov was released marking the beginning of the "Anti-Terrorist Operation" in southeastern Ukraine. Residents of Donbass who did not accept the coup d'etat were declared "enemies" and "terrorists."On May 2, 2014, the hideous Odessa Trade Unions House massacre, where roughly 50 people were bludgeoned to death and burned alive, took place. On May 9, 2014, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and the military killed and persecuted participants of the Victory Day Parade in Mariupol. The Ukrainian regime also started to shell Donbass."Everything that happened at the time was seen not only by the militia, but also by all the residents of Donbass. We, the people, were bombed literally everywhere. They struck everywhere. Children were dying," Maya said."It was hard for our population to endure this tragedy when Ukraine essentially betrayed us. These events have ruined the lives of many people," Maya highlighted.Like many Donbass residents at the time, Matyushin took up arms to defend the Donetsk Republic: "A bayonet can only be confronted with a bayonet," he said. "Therefore, I gathered my detachment and went to defend my land. I couldn't do it in any other way."Initially, his detachment consisted mostly of his friends and Donetsk activists. Soon it started to grow."The backbone was made up of those who fought for the Donetsk Republic from the very start. And the rest were those who, in the era of the Russian Spring, realized that their home must be defended, so they took up arms," he said. "Most of my guys had no military experience, so they learned in battle. […] The detachment would have grown larger, but I did not have enough arms. Weapons for the most part were obtained directly as trophies in battle."Russia Steps in to End Kiev Regime's War on DonbassRussia's attempts to stop the Kiev regime's war against Donbass through the Minsk Agreements of 2014 and 2015 failed, as neither Ukraine nor its Western backers were willing to observe the provisions of the accords.Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ex-French President François Hollande later admitted that they considered the Minsk Agreements as an opportunity for the Ukrainian military to build up. Speaking to Spiegel in February 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that he made a decision not to observe the agreements after his election in 2019 and that he had informed Western leaders about it.Likewise, the US and NATO rejected Russia's draft security agreements of December 2021, aimed at ensuring peace in Europe and requesting non-enlargement guarantees from the transatlantic alliance, as well as Ukraine's demilitarization and non-aligned status.Moscow had no alternative but to step in to protect Russian-speakers in the east of Ukraine and ensure the security of its own borders. On February 24, 2022, the special military operation to de-Nazify and demilitarize Ukraine began.Now that the Russian Armed Forces are making progress on the battlefield to bring an end to the nine-year war in eastern Ukraine, Matyushin, who has repeatedly been wounded during the hostilities in Donbass, is working as a war correspondent."Not having the opportunity to fight at the front now, I am trying to protect the country at least informationally," he said. "Therefore, I am always ready to go on air from the scene even if it entails risking my life. But every day in Donetsk one runs the risk of being killed, even if one doesn't leave the house."*The Right Sector and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) are extremist organizations banned in Russia.
The 2014 February coup d'etat became the trigger for the conflict in Ukraine, which Russia's special military operation was designed to end, Maidan witnesses from Donbass told Sputnik.
The "Russian Spring" in Donbass was a grassroots movement that began when the Euromaidan protests were raging in Kiev, Alexander Matyushin, call sign "Varyag," former commander of the "Varyag" detachment and war correspondent, told Sputnik.
The protests started on November 21, 2013, with up to 2,000 protesters gathering in Kiev's central square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), after then-President Viktor Yanukovich refused to sign an EU association agreement.
"Nikolai Azarov, Yanukovich's closest aide and adviser, at the 11th hour calculated that switching to European standards would indebt Ukraine at a scale one had never imagined," Matyushin said. "The transition envisaged changing everything, starting from sockets to railway tracks, everything had to be rebuilt. [The Yanukovich government] concluded it was unprofitable and refused [to sign the agreement with the EU – Sputnik]. After that, students took to the streets and were dispersed by Berkut on camera, which caused a wave of indignation in Kiev. From that point Euromaidan started to gain momentum."
Roots of Split Between Western and Eastern Ukraine
"Historically, the southeast [of Ukraine] has always gravitated towards Russia," Matyushin said. He recalled that in 1919, Vladimir Lenin, then head of the Soviet government, integrated Donbass into the Ukrainian Socialist Republic against the will of the region's population. After the collapse of the USSR, the 1994 plebiscite in Donbass concerning the region's federalization and making Russian a second official language was similarly ignored by the then-Ukrainian government.
By the time of Euromaidan, the southeastern and northwestern parts of Ukraine had already been divided over the future of the country: the former sought to integrate with the EU, while the latter wanted to develop economic ties with Russia, according to Matyushin.
"The southeast included the territories from Kharkov to Odessa, the so-called Novorossiya, along with Crimea. And separately, there was the northwest, where these Ukrainian [nationalist] tendencies were strong," he said.
The split became especially visible in 2004, when the Western-backed Orange Revolution on Maidan square brought Viktor Yushchenko to power in Kiev, the war correspondent pointed out.
"And all the economic vicissitudes starting from 2004, when there was a severance of relations [between Russia and Ukraine], i.e. the gas war, the sugar war, etc., hit Donbass very hard because its industries relied, in particular, on cheap Russian gas."
In 2005, the Yushchenko government unilaterally initiated a review of tariffs for the transit of Russian gas to Europe through the territory of Ukraine, which led to the termination of a long-term Russo-Ukrainian gas contract that had fixed the fuel price for Kiev at $50 per 1,000 cubic meters until 2010. The increase in gas price dealt a blow to Donbass, which "blamed the Western Ukraine protege Yushchenko" for the economic turndown, Matyushin noted.
Another driver for the split was the glorification of WW2-era Nazi collaborators by the Yushchenko government. Yushchenko openly praised the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)* responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Jews, Russians, Roma, and Poles during Nazi Germany's occupation of Ukraine and granted the titles of Hero of Ukraine to OUN-UPA leaders Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera in 2007 and 2010, respectively. He also declared Ukrainian NATO membership a priority in 2008.
According to the war correspondent, over 10 years – from 2004 to 2014 – the ideological and political rift between western and eastern Ukraine deepened dramatically. The 2014 Euromaidan events became the catalyst for the final division, he underscored.
The first rally against Euromaidan in Donetsk. December 2013
"We had understood from the very beginning that everything that happened on Maidan could not lead to anything good," Maya, warrant officer and commander of the support platoon of the 1st Slavic Brigade, told Sputnik. "I think the majority [of Ukrainians] also knew and understood that the West was involved in this. It was not the first time that the West had interfered in the domestic affairs of our state. It all started back in 2004, when the first Maidan, dubbed the Orange Revolution, and [the West's] interference in the presidential elections happened. I think at that moment everyone realized exactly what was happening."
Opposition supporters on Maidan Square in Kiev where clashes began between protesters and the police. (File)
The 2013-14 Euromaidan movement was orchestrated and funded by Ukrainian oligarchs and their Western backers, who "tried from the very beginning to turn Ukraine into an 'anti-Russia,'" Matyushin explained.
"On December 3 [2013], I organized a rally on Lenin Square in the center of Donetsk, where a few pro-Russian activists gathered. We stated that we did not support the Maidan unrest, that it should be stopped," Matyushin recalled.
"When they showed footage of burning Berkuts [special police force – Sputnik] and Internal Troops of Ukraine, when the confrontation on the Maidan escalated, at that moment we started to join ranks with all [anti-Maidan] activists in Donetsk," said Matyushin. "At this point, on January 25 [2014], we, social activists, held a meeting at the Eva Hotel, at which we decided that we would continue to interact, and if 'guests' arrived from western Ukraine or from Kiev, including the Right Sector*, we would confront them."
In the winter of 2014, violent clashes between protesters, including nationalists, and Ukrainian security forces broke out on Independence Square, known in Ukrainian as Maidan Nezalezhnosti, in Kiev. Photo: Tents of European integration supporters on Independence Square in Kiev, where clashes between the opposition and police broke out. 18 February 2014.
After the regime change of February 22, 2014 in Kiev, Donbass activists scheduled a rally for the very next day.
"Activists came from almost the entire Donetsk region," Matyushin recalled. "That is, it was probably the first mass rally in Donetsk since 2004 that was not organized directly by pro-government structures. It was a grassroots rally."
"An important point is that its backbone was not elderly people, or even middle-aged people, but young people from 20 to 35 years old," he continued.
People carry flags of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) during a ceremony for the presentation of the DPR flag at the Lenin square of Donetsk, on October 19, 2014
Donetsk activists understood at the time that to confront Ukrainian nationalist and neo-Nazi gangs, they needed to create some sort of a center where people could go and coordinate their activities.
"And for almost a week from February 23 to March 1 [2014], activists gathered, people came, gave money to maintain the tent city, some leaflets were printed, and people exchanged contacts. Thus, the core [of the resistance] was assembled. And on March 1, events began that led to the Russian Spring," Matyushin said.
On March 1, 2014, a rally on Lenin Square in Donetsk brought together over 10,000 people. Demonstrators carried a large Russian flag and the placards with slogans "Donbass with Russia" and "Crimea-Donbass-Russia."
The protesters hoisted the Russian flag on the flagpole of the Donetsk Regional State Administration. On the steps of the building, newly elected People's Governor Pavel Gubarev announced that the people of Donbass wouldn’t recognize the illegitimate Kiev regime and would demand a referendum and elections. On April 7, 2014, the newly established Donetsk People's Republic declared independence.
The regions of southeastern Ukraine did not accept the Maidan coup and launched protest movements. Crimea held a referendum to gain autonomy and rejoin Russia in March 2014. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Nikolaev, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Odessa, Gorlovka, Mariupol, and other cities.
The Ukrainian junta responded with brutal attacks and military action against pro-Russian protesters.
On April 14, 2014, a decree of Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov was released marking the beginning of the "Anti-Terrorist Operation" in southeastern Ukraine. Residents of Donbass who did not accept the coup d'etat were declared "enemies" and "terrorists."
On May 2, 2014, the hideous Odessa Trade Unions House massacre, where roughly 50 people were bludgeoned to death and burned alive, took place. On May 9, 2014, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and the military killed and persecuted participants of the Victory Day Parade in Mariupol. The Ukrainian regime also started to shell Donbass.
"Everything that happened at the time was seen not only by the militia, but also by all the residents of Donbass. We, the people, were bombed literally everywhere. They struck everywhere. Children were dying," Maya said.
Maya, warrant officer and commander of the support platoon of the 1st Slavic Brigade
"I remember the summer of 2014," she continued. "I remember the strike on the playground and children's beach in Zugres [a city in the Donetsk region – Sputnik]. Our unit carried these children out of the beach. You know, I can tell you, when one boy is carrying a child, and the second one is carrying his insides, in the hope of taking him to the hospital, it is very hard to watch. It’s hard psychologically, morally, and physically. It’s hard to live with it later."
"It was hard for our population to endure this tragedy when Ukraine essentially betrayed us. These events have ruined the lives of many people," Maya highlighted.
Maya, warrant officer and commander of the support platoon of the 1st Slavic Brigade, with her daughter.
Like many Donbass residents at the time, Matyushin took up arms to defend the Donetsk Republic: "A bayonet can only be confronted with a bayonet," he said. "Therefore, I gathered my detachment and went to defend my land. I couldn't do it in any other way."
Initially, his detachment consisted mostly of his friends and Donetsk activists. Soon it started to grow.
"The backbone was made up of those who fought for the Donetsk Republic from the very start. And the rest were those who, in the era of the Russian Spring, realized that their home must be defended, so they took up arms," he said. "Most of my guys had no military experience, so they learned in battle. […] The detachment would have grown larger, but I did not have enough arms. Weapons for the most part were obtained directly as trophies in battle."
Russia Steps in to End Kiev Regime's War on Donbass
Russia's attempts to stop the Kiev regime's war against Donbass through the Minsk Agreements of 2014 and 2015 failed, as neither Ukraine nor its Western backers were willing to observe the provisions of the accords.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ex-French President François Hollande later admitted that they considered the Minsk Agreements as an opportunity for the Ukrainian military to build up. Speaking to Spiegel in February 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that he made a decision not to observe the agreements after his election in 2019 and that he had informed Western leaders about it.
Apartment building destroyed in a Ukrainian air raide in the town of Snezhnoe, Donetsk People's Republic. July 2014.
Likewise, the US and NATO rejected Russia's draft security agreements of December 2021, aimed at ensuring peace in Europe and requesting non-enlargement guarantees from the transatlantic alliance, as well as Ukraine's demilitarization and non-aligned status.
Moscow had no alternative but to step in to protect Russian-speakers in the east of Ukraine and ensure the security of its own borders. On February 24, 2022, the special military operation to de-Nazify and demilitarize Ukraine began.
An elderly woman walks past a kiosk damaged by shrapnel at a street market after shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine Friday, Oct. 10, 2014
Now that the Russian Armed Forces are making progress on the battlefield to bring an end to the nine-year war in eastern Ukraine, Matyushin, who has repeatedly been wounded during the hostilities in Donbass, is working as a war correspondent.
"Not having the opportunity to fight at the front now, I am trying to protect the country at least informationally," he said. "Therefore, I am always ready to go on air from the scene even if it entails risking my life. But every day in Donetsk one runs the risk of being killed, even if one doesn't leave the house."
"Once upon a time there was a fashionable T-shirt with the inscription 'Novoross is a man made of fire and steel.' This can be safely said about almost every resident of Donetsk, Lugansk, Yasinovataya, Makeevka, Gorlovka, and other cities. The truth about Donbass should be shown in the most comprehensive way possible and also reach Europe," Matyushin concluded.
*The Right Sector and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) are extremist organizations banned in Russia.
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