In late 2013, protesters in Kiev descended upon Independence Square, also known as Maidan, to voice disapproval against the government’s latest decision. After years of negotiation and promises their government, under President Viktor Yanukovych, at the last moment failed to sign a major trade agreement with the EU. The square fast became an iconic site of protest. Students were the first to arrive. These were the Ukrainians with the most to lose. Young people who unreflectively see themselves as europeans and who wished for themselves a life in a country close to the european model. Many were politically minded, some of them radically so. When the riot police came and beat them, a group of Afghan veterans also came to Maidan. These middle aged men, former soldiers of the Red Army, came to protect “their children”, the best of the youth, the pride and future of the country. After the veterans, thousands of others joined in but now not so much in favour of a future in Europe but in defence of decency and demanding change. The protesters represented every group of the society: Russian and Ukrainian speakers, people from cities and countryside, people from all parts of the country, members of all political parties, the young and the old, Christians, Muslims and Jews. The diversity was impressive. By mid January, the government tried to put an end to Ukraine’s civil society by passing a series of laws without following normal procedures and removing the few remaining checks on executive authority. For people on the streets, this was an attempt to create a dictatorship and turn all participants in Maidan into criminals. The result was that the protests until then mostly peaceful, became violent. Yanukovych started losing support even in his political base in the southeast. In the barricades erected around the square, piles of tires would now burn 24 hours a day. The high columns of flames and smoke filled the skies at night in a quasi-apocalyptic scene tinted by a dramatic orange glow. A visual spectacle complemented by frozen icicles formed by police water cannons. After weeks of responding peacefully to arrests and beatings by the riot police many Ukrainians had had enough. A fraction of the protesters decided to fight back and tensions reached a high point on February 20th. A day to be remembered as the most violent in Kiev’s recent history. The square was in flames with protesters and riot police standing off over the future of the country. Protests were ongoing for more than two months now but events were about to come to a head. In the early hours of that morning some protesters armed with nothing more than clubs and metal shields advanced towards the police in direction to the parliament. Retreating security forces and unknown snipers from surrounding buildings started shooting and by the end of the day more than 50 people were killed. The heaviest death toll in clashes between protesters and security forces. Next day Yanukovych fled Ukraine.