The idea that the CIA boogeyman was able to force mobilize millions of Ukrainians into the streets of Kyiv to overthrow their government is simultaneously moronic and laughable. Russian propaganda never ceases to amaze me, and the fact that some people lap that assertion up as if it were true is both amusing yet worrisome. I don't think there is anything THAT unbelievable about a country whose near entire existence has been spent under the oppressive thumb of the Russian "empire" finally wanting their own true independence, free of a Russian puppet government & president. The United States fought a war for independence in 1775, now it's Ukraine's turn. Good for them. #SlavaUkraini
@@bobchris9423Do you truly believe the Russian state department puts out accurate numbers and information, especially regarding whether the territory they stole would or would not want to be part of Ukraine instead of Russia? Get real dude
I think it is vitally important to note that while the European Union was negotiating with Ukraine they were also dealing with the Greek Crisis. They could only offer so much to Ukraine because they were insisting on austerity in Greece.
Wellll, at that time putin also had a lot of european politicians helping him. Just look at those leaders like Berlusconi, Sarkozy and Merkel. Making a deal with pootin for cheaper energy resources in exchange for influence was a no-brainer for them.
@@boarfaceswinejaw4516yep, but at least it is visible now. I guess a lot of people were thinking that cheap energy resources is just an accomplishment of those corrupt clowns, where in reality ruzzia helped them to get elected.
@16:20 Reportedly, the chief of staff was dismissed for refusing to use the army to supress the protests without a written order. The deputy chief of staff was then asked to do the same, which he refused and resigned of his own volution.
The main goal of the army is to deal with external threats. Those 2 military officiers were right. Civil war should not include military, as military must be here to defend if there is an invader.
There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people
Not since 2014, but from much earlier times. Check Holodomor 1921-1923, then 1932-1933, then 1946-1947 large-scale manmade famine killing millions of Ukrainians, or even pre-soviet time when Ukrainians were prohibited from speaking the Ukrainian language. Russia tried to eliminate Ukrainian language and culture for hundreds of years.
@@hejsapo1572 Oh, a paid by Putin propaganda made by his friend Oliver Stone who asked Putin to be God father for his daughter, you mean? If you glorify a fascist country, it tells me a lot about yourself.
Well technically the American Revolution was a French supported uprising. But even the French couldn't expect its breakthrough success. Napoleon once famously stated: We have created the most fierce competitor for the British on the Seas.
great job, it's a pity you didn't cover the "Dictatorial Laws of January 16" after which Yanukovych had 0 chances to hold power, he angered even his ardent supporters among the citizens. Because according to these laws, everyone had the opportunity to go to prison for the absurd, for example, a traffic jam. Or a ban on head protection on the street - Cyclist? Builder - You can literally go to jail because of hastily designed laws for these rallies
This and also kinda wish K&G would put Winter on Fire and some videos of the actual protest, for example the first violent accident, where Yanukovich Berkut encircled the protesters at night and took a revenge at them. Video also doesn't mention __where__ did Yanukovich and Berkut flee.
If I remember correctly the helmet rule was within a certain area, it didn’t extend all over the city. Of course I’m remembering something from a tv news report 8 years ago. If you hire a bike to ride around Yanukovych’s “palace” you have to wear a helmet… the irony 😂😂
@@saberint that's why you don't ride a bike, you gonna own a custom built bullet proof motor van instead and a RPD-80 and stereo speakers just in case you ran out of bullet (Playing the machine gun noises instead)
Videos like this are very important for understanding why there is conflict in Ukraine today. Also will there be a video on the annexation of Crimea and the Donbas war?
@@KingsandGenerals When you make a video about Crimea, please note that the seizure of the parliament of Simferopol began even when Yanukovych was officially in office. There is even a Russian medal for the annexation of Crimea with a date.
@@KingsandGenerals "The war in Donbas" makes it sound like a civil war, which is was not, , you need to call it "Russia's war in Donbas". How do I know ? I am not Ukrainian but I was there living in Makiivka (my Ukrainian wife's flat, she lost that one). Bought one in Pokrovsk to replace it, we had to leve as its too dangerous to be there (i.e. effectively lost for now) - we've been IDP for over a year, imagine not being home in 0ver a year, that sucks . At the time in 2014 I saw these bandit army guys and heavy weapons come out of nowhere. They even put a big gun right next to our flat, that's maybe a war crime to hide big guns close to civilians and then use them, making them a target for return fire.
I recall watching Winter on Fire a long time ago, it's simply mind boggling that the flames of freedom so close to being extinguished are now pillars of State, unyielding to the Ruzzi Menace. I salute you Ukraine yet again, you've shown time and again your impossible feats.
@@one.girl...1you're right. They had a lot of chances to rebel against Putin especially when progozhin tried to gather support and march on Moscow. This is no longer just Putin's war, this is Russia's war. Perhaps Ukraine is right to take the bombings to Moscow. The Russian have all stated they hate the war, but they do nothing to stop it. I know some of them do and are actively fighting against him, But not enough Russians are trying. They claim they don't support the war, they should prove it with actions not words.
@@stufox8174 That is a pro-Kremlin piece of propaganda and it doesn't even try to hide it. Netflix's recent Cleopatra "documentary" is more accurate. As an aside, Ivan, do ask your comrades to return the stolen Scythian gold to Ukraine. Please and thank you.
I was in Kyiv when Maidan was happening and it was a beautiful show of love, strength and solidarity for freedom that we as Ukrainians hold. Originally from Mariupol, I was in Kyiv to get my VISA to come to America. Whatever the interference there was by the West, I know one thing for sure. EVERYONE wanted to join Europe and leave toxic russia behind. And if the West was helping us, we were pretty happy about that.
Hii I am hope you're doing fine now. I am so sorry about what happend to your city and hope it will be liberated soon. Mariupol is Ukraine. I hope you and your family are save Слава Україні!
Honestly the whole narriative falls apart just looking at Zelensky. Coups do not place center left liberals in power, he's about as non radical as politicians get.
@@samwill7259also note that before being elected as president Zelensky wasn't very fluent in ukranian and was mostly speaking russian and yet 73% of people voted for him. Thats all you need to know about russian myth that russian speaking people were oppressed and needed to be defended by putin. Also I have a friend in Donetsk region (part controlled by Ukraine) he still speaks russian and nobody is bothering him for that. Half of Ukraine Armed Forces speaks russian and that's ok. So russia just made up all those myths to have at least some justification for their war of conquest.
So was I! I used to walk through the protest lines most days to get to and from work… I got to speak to lots of the police and protesters during that time.
I rememeber back in 2014 when we were seeing headlines of ISIS and Ukraine I became so invested in world politics. Seeing the state of UA today makes me sad but glad to see that since 2014 back when I didn't have much hope that Ukraine would survive as a country. I'm glad I was wrong and the world see's their struggle and although slow at helping they are helping . Slava Ukraini
@@daquemasquieren Many people left Ukraine, many died. But we will never give up. There are still a lot of us here, and we will stand until the last drop of blood. We stood, we stand and we will stand.
@@ВладКиселёв-ш4и I wanna say you guys have the single lowest birthrates in europe, on top of having had huge swaths of your male population die or just leave. Good luck with that long term.
@@daquemasquieren Are you kidding? Ukraine's done an amazing job so far. If Russia fully mobilizes, then Ukraine will surely have more problems, but even then defeat is not even remotely close to certain... the horrible supply of worthy equipment & the failure of organization of Russia's military is struggling mightily right now, and more boots on the ground will likely exacerbate that problem even further. Ukraine's practically working a miracle considering the situation, shouldn't forget that. It's looking more and more like they will survive.
@@ActionAlligator 'Are you kidding? Ukraine's done an amazing job so far. ' to lose 10 mln people in 40 mln country is like for the US to lose the 80 million in a matter of several years. I doubt Ukraine will ever fully recover. ' Ukraine's practically working a miracle considering the situation,' They initially faced 190k invasion force and now it's much bigger. I wouldn't tell it's really good. However the chances of them even surviving probably was small - but 'what did it cost?'
@@Iv4Bez 10 million people? WTF are these Russian numbers? Russian bot #43423423, reporting in? You're so full of sh!t lmfao. Look at _Russia's_ losses from this pointless invasion... loss of economic and financial power, loss of military personnel, equipment, and military reputation; now tell me if Russia will ever recover. Everyone was assuming Ukraine was going to instantly crumble, except they didn't, now did they? And now Russia has shown the world what a joke their military force is, and a needlessly brutal one at that committing war crimes left and right and incessantly bombing civilians. Cope harder.
I have lived in Kyiv all my life. The revolution happened when I was 8. I will never forget how my grandfather and I went to the Maidan and stuck a sticker "I'm not here for the money", I remember the crowd, the barricades, the smoke. Then my parents forbade me to be there when people started dying, but they went themselves, delivered food to the tent city. these events left a deep mark on me and, I think, on all Ukrainians. Ukraine will always be free, democratic and will never again fall into Moscow's clutches. Glory to Ukraine
@@tubeyou8728Never heard of Vitali Budko the pro-russian provocateur who shot an ucrainian activist dead before the accident happened?? So, first, no junta ever existed, you are worthless, and you are telling BS, russian narratives 1:1
Probably next is a video from these guys asking if Allende was really victim of a coup. Hahaha everyone is so happy with this video, we all heard Victoria Nuland coordinating the coup, the rest is western propaganda.
I've been waiting for Perun to cover this difficult topic for over a year now. I'm glad you guys have. You've struck a reasonable balance, and defended your position with facts. Still, the hate mail will be entertaining. Share some of it. We could use a laugh.
It's always been interesting to me that some people refer to the Maidan Revolution as only a "coup". It's one thing if the army overthrows a government out of the blue, it's quite another thing if the military steps in after weeks or months of mass protests by people demanding the current regime/government resign or if there is a parliamentary vote that ousts the current leader from power. There's an implied meaning in the word "coup" of "the army/security services/or one faction overthrew the government by violent force without any consent from ordinary citizens." and this simply just didn't happen in the case of the Euromaidan Ukraine uprising.
Calling it a coup would imply a small group is working against the wishes of the population. It's been a thing to say the West was influencing/funding/supplying the protests to make them look undemocratic and the result of Western interference, not due to concerns by the Ukrainian people.
A "coup" rarely results in general elections after, unless those elections result in a 90+% approval rating of the new guy. ;) Pretty simple to define the difference. LOL ua-cam.com/video/dn5f0-y71tE/v-deo.html
@@Sajuuk Overthrowing of a government is a coup if you haven't heard it mentioned at all you need to broaden your news sources. All sides use propaganda just cause you support Ukraine doesn't mean you close your eyes to the truth.
@@ravanpee1325 Obviously why those same oligarchs supported his assassination when Ukraine was invaded last year... Also, politics in Ukraine suffers from some major Soviet hangovers. It was very common for political rivals to attack each other using platforms like television and media that they themselves owned. People who mock Zelensky for being a comedian forget that he was also the owner of a significant media company not unlike previous political candidates.
The subject is ofc handelt excellently, but OMG THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. Not only is the artwork amazing, but even the maps feel so much sleeker. I love it! Keep up the amazing work guys!
Nice work. But i think it was worth also point out that also was protests before start of revolution -"Tax maidan". Many ppl in east was in support of Janukovich after Jushenko but his corruption was very bad so we had maidan at Kharkiv too.
I was working with a Luhansk woman (1/2 Russian/Ukrainian) back in 2014, I remember her being very cynical about politics in her home country. Basically, that nothing was going to change except going from a pro-Russian oligarch to a pro-EU oligarch.
@@fungunsun1 Yeah, at the time I felt it wasn't appropriate to talk about anti-corruption measures that aligning with the EU would bring. I know there is EU corruption; however, it is way less than Russian corruption. The topic got even harder to talk about when her mom, who was still living in Luhansk, was sending her daughter pictures, calls, etc while the city was being encircled.
I don’t like when western media put the question of Russia vs Europe as the main question in Ukrainian politics. I totally get why though but as much as it was about European Union, the main goal of the revolution was to remove corrupt President and corrupt politicians. Who were not only stealing huge amounts of money for them and their families and friends, but also had the audacity to apply power and kill protesting civilians. Yeah this was against Russia and in favor of EU, however, I strongly believe that had Yanukovych be pro-EU and continued to do what he did, the revolution would still happened sooner or later
Exactly! It was about the fundamentals of their democracy being violated right before their eyes and the people fought back. This was the same case with the Orange Revolution of 2004.
Yanukovic took a Russian loan offer with fewer strings than the EU offer. He tried to bring all sides to support him but somehow got them all against him. The EU was always going to harp on the levels of corruption and demand more stringent measures. EU would take baby steps towards inviting Ukraine. Ukraine failed to get EU membership, but then also pursued NATO membership. As if the Russian bear would ever be okay with that.
Yanukovych had been bought by RuZZia----He began allowing the FSB to re-enter Crimea, installed RuZZian Officers into the Ukrainian Government (key positions), appointed anti-Ukrainian military staff to high positions who slowly disarmed the armed forces allowing for easy takeover of Crimea.
I still remember when the police beat and stripped one of the protesters naked in front of everyone to humiliate him. He was naked in the freezing snow with cameras recording him.
0:47 "In this video, we will describe the events of the Revolution of Dignity and try to find out if it was really a revolution or, *as Russian propaganda claims,* a coup." The funny thing is that your phrasing already reveals your conclusion.
It was obviously NOT a coup! K&G tried to explain both arguments (even RuZZia's ludicrous one) to the general public who may have had little to no knowledge of the events---If they had, and had a brain, it would have been obvious that it was NOT a coup---NO change in GOVERNMENT--means no coup!
@@KingsandGenerals I see his point; it's positioning - which is kind of propaganda - to make the assertion 'as Russian propaganda claims' knowing that it isn't just Russian 'propaganda'. There are also many respected, and highly qualified academics and experts on Russia, NATO and US foreign policy who also make the claim.
SURE HE IS...When someone describes ideas of flaterthers or reptilian conspiratists, no one pretends he tried to take it seriously. No one in his mind takes Russian nonsense seriously anymore....
unknown personel in military gear using riot/crowd control tactics is evidence of some organization/interference from an unknown who isn't civilian. Which is alarming for everyday individuals. With no training, sophisticated networks, or access to a means to defend themselves.
@@whiskey4o4 Stop comparing the west to the east. Police in eastern europe arent trained and are corrupt. the east isnt the same as the west, its like saying people in japan live a certain way and then using those parameters to judge south africa. lol.
Coup is a change of policy forced from the top, a revolution is a change that started from the bottom, from the people. This is the difference, and the explanation why Maidan, was in fact, a revolution
Then why we know for a fact that usa politicians, like their ambassador in Ukraine, were talking about who to put in power next? These is the stolen audio of the calls, they aren't from the bottom.
All historic events we refer to as a 'coup', share these 3 things: 1) The overturn was done by clearly distinct group of people. You always could say whether this specific person was in or not. 2) It was done as an operation according to a specific plan. 3) It had clearly defined goal (in prevailing most of cases - getting the power and holding it as long as possible) On the other hand, historic events known as 'revolutions' are very different in all 3 aspects: 1) Done by broad masses of people, most of whom are hard to clearly attribute whether they are revolutionaries or not. There are activists, but their role is mostly to agitate and instigate the crowd. 2) Events are mostly chaotic, at least at the beginning. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow not to say in a week. There are some sort of leaders, but they are mostly trying to ride the wave rather than create one. On later stages the events may become more organized, but they start from chaos, often coming out of the blue. 3) The only common goal for all participants is to destroy the current order. Opinions about what must happen next among revolutionaries may be very different so that if the revolution wins, it may be followed by civil war between different factions of winners. Applying this pattern, the conclusion whether Maidan was a coup or revolution is a trivial task.
Great video, as usual. The Euromaidan was a subject I didn't know enough about. But I must say, the map of Europe used in the video is a bit inaccurate. It seems as though Russia has annexed western Lithuania and eastern Finland, and the borders in the Balkans seem lazily drawn (especially the serbo-hungarian border and the one Greece and Bulgaria shares with Turkiye). I don't expect the borders to be perfect, but I think it would increase the credibility and quality of the video if they were more accurate.
Thanks for the video. I've been on maidan few times during the revolution (I live in Lviv). Was in Kyiv when Lenin statue was thrown down, but missed that. Overall the vibe of Maidan felt so special - everyone is helping each other, unity and fraternity (even between people with politically opposite views). I remember building barricades of ice with random fellow maidan protesters all night during freezing January night (it was unusually cold that year) before formations of riot police. I'll never forget the sense of purpose
A lot of respect for the continued coverage of Ukraine and its history. Most channels fell off except for some clickbait stuff. You guys should be proud of the body of work
Excellent video; I have always thought Ukraine plan of joining NATO was more an excuse, or at best a secondary issue, for Putin's real concern regarding Ukraine; in my opinion, and this video helps my point, Putin's main concern is Ukraine joining EU which would definitely economically and politically (and even culturally) effectively remove Ukraine from Russia's sphere of influence. Even more, I think, he's very aware Ukraine could become EU's agricultural powerhouse, which would eventually make them rich, and therefore completely and entirely out of Russia's influence. In general rich countries stop being puppets of others and have the financial advantage to pay fo anything they need to make sure the autonomy is respected. i.e South Korea, Singapore, UAE come to mind. Other cases which come to mind but which are not entirely there yet are: Baltic countries, Uruguay (low-key becoming the richest Latin country per Capita, Vietnam)
I think the bigger issue is how similar russia and ukraine are. If Ukraine became a wealthy, democratic western country, it would show it is possible in Russia as well.
All those factors influence the constructive/destructive nature of relations, but the genesis of the unraveling of Russian/Ukrainian cooperation was the bypassing of Ukrainian pipelines by Russia and Germany. Also Singapore and UAE are new countries
@santiagocarreno5881 Your ignorance on this is astounding for how contrary it is to the historical record. Putin was explicit: He didn't have a problem with Ukraine joining the EU, since the EU was not a military alliance.
Thank, you K&G. Awesome video, very informative as always and very valuable in our era of spreading shіt by russia and it's consuming "truth seekers" among not very smart people. I was a student in Kyiv then, remember that times exactly as it was yesterday. 2014 was a tough year and the brightest memory i have from the yanukovich’s era is me waiting for the bus and the ambulance car standing and waiting while the cortege of some official d.ickhead to pass the street. That regime was bloodsucking and no surprise it ended up in a such way.
Now you can see why Ukraine wanted change from the Russian system of corruption and intensity of said corruption in all its formes, which still has to be delt with. Fir Ukraine to have a bright future and have a legal and prosperous future is to win this "bloody" war. That Russia has unleashed on the people of Ukraine. This is were it stops after centuries of russian interference in Ukraine.
Yanu: *cracks down on protests* Protests: *intensify* Yanu: *runs to grovel at his master vladmirs feet like a good dog* parliament: "the president abandoned his post and ran to hide in a foreign country, the constitution says we should form a new government" Yanu and his master vladmir: "doing what the constitution says you should do when the president runs away is unconstitutional and a coup😭😭"
You Ukrainians are some sell outs. You would rather befriend the enemy of your brothers and sisters in Russia than be united as one with them. Soon you people will see. Take a look at Libya, Iraq, and the rest of countries the west “liberated”. They turned into banana republics. The westerners don’t want nothing but your oil. And once they secure your oil reserves. You the citizens of Ukraine will be left on your own to fight among each other.
Two times in prison. Very illiterate, so he got the nickname "professor". Could not speak Ukrainian properly. Therefore, he was a laughing stock and a meme creator.
Seeing as how you are doing a fair lot of Modern Affairs videos will you do videos about (for example) the Tigray War, the Chechen Wars or the Syrian Civil War + The War on Al-Qaeda?
@@KingsandGeneralsThis Ukraine stuff will fade like the Pacific series, if it continues too long, better to add another series! The pelopponesian war series is aldredy made so you are simply editing and releasing them!
This is what I wrote my final paper on when I was in a class on geopolitics in college. It was all about the Euromaidan and how both the West and Russia were actively interfering in the sovereign business of the people of Ukraine. America certainly did make it a little bit easier for Russia to make the claims of fascism and Ukraine now even though they are completely unfounded as the nationalist parties with the farthest right leanings are such a minority in the government at the moment but I remember a picture of John McCain's standing next to the leader of svaboda and the deputy Secretary of State under Hillary Clinton essentially talking about who the post yanukovych cabinet would comprise of. Eventually Ukraine took control of their own destiny but there was certainly a time when both the west and Russia were trying to manipulate its future. And I will admit this at the time there were a lot of individual activities going around that's did promote the idea that there was a far-right element throughout the revolution and at the time that was undeniable that there was a very minority group that maintained ideologies of that nature during those times such as the man who entered Parliament with an AK-47 demanding that all Russians Jews and Communists leave, or the nationalist Street action that took up arms against the police and roamed the city looking for scapegoats to beat. All that being said those individuals were still a minority and while it is important to remember that they did and still do exist, that people like them exist in every country in the world and that nationalistic far-right and fascistic behavior is present in every country especially in the western world. Russia certainly has a problem with it and so it would be like throwing stones in a glass house especially considering that Putin himself has a book written by Konstantin Rodzaevsky prominently positioned in his office and if you don't know who that is I recommend looking him up because he is a very prominent Russian fascist that collaborated with the Nazis and Japanese. The events discussed in this video were important for the future of Ukraine and were largely dictated by the people of Ukraine through peaceful where possible means, however we cannot deny that there was interference at the time from both the west and Russia often stoking the violence or taking advantage of individual Actors for their own geopolitical ends
@@Jonathan-se7jy thank you that actually means a lot, because there is nothing about Ukraine that is simple or black and white. It is a complicated conflict with a very nuanced History. In the end the Ukraine conflict has three layers, the destiny of the Ukrainian people, the polarized destiny of their economic future, and their purpose in the geopolitical game. None of these three layers individually tells the whole story and each of them has a perspective from opposite ends that, when told together, can help people understand the truth.
@@tavenstrickert9658nothing is simple in geopolitics. You have the dozens of internal forces pushing your country to their dream state while also having to weigh your position on the international playing field.
US politicians visiting Ukraine and showing moral support is hardly even worthy of the label 'interference', also the "talking about post Yanukovych government call" (that's the Nuland call) was about the deal Yanukovych offered Yatsenyuk and Klitschko to calm protesters, Nuland suggested Yatsenyuk accept it (he didn't). This also goes against the idea that the US tried escalating, suggesting Yats take the deal was the complete opposite. In this time, Russia threatened Yanukovych, suggested he should react harshly to protesters, bribed him and effectively embargoed Ukraine. The two are not even remotely comparable.
thanks a lot for creation of this video. Very good coverage of the events. I would like to note that my home town Dnipro(showed as a part of russian speaking industrial east) was always kind of split 50/50 between pro western and pro russian views. After 2014 invasion it was like 70 % pro western 30% pro russian. So it's not just a question of geography or language, it's a division based on values, on the future look of Ukraine.
@gigachaddusmaximus7612 this is a tricky question. Yes, initially in 2014 there were quite high support of the "friendship with Russia". However only a minority wanted to start a war against their pro western neighbors. That's why most of the job was done by russian citizens like Girkin. When the war started (in 2014) around 30% of the occupied parts of the Donbass population fled to other Ukrainian cities, other 30% fled to Russia and abroad. Among those who stayed most pro ukrainian people were either murdered or jailed, others were brainwashed by russian propaganda. So at some point most of the people who stayed there were pro russian, but over the time this was also not stable because everyone saw that while in Ukraine there was some progress, in those DPR LPR nothing good was happening. And before 2022 already a lot of people moved or wanted to rejoin to Ukraine (hard to tell about the exact numbers, nobody can do proper polls there). And now Donbass people mostly hate Russia (I think you can imagine why).
I spent over 3 months in Dnipro in 2014 and this mirrors my observations. After Crimea was annexed and war in Donbass started, more and more people turned against Russia. Everyone was still speaking Russian tho..
@@zeeninetynine That’s because russian was a first language for a noticeable population of Ukraine, and was very much a second language for most Ukrainians. And as far as I understand, it wasn’t uncommon to hear Ukrainian and russian being spoken concurrently. Ironically, russia’s own invasions have created a lot of the anti-russian language sentiment themselves, and as a result, it’s pushed many Ukrainians away from using russian (I have a friend who gets quite legitimately angry when she hears Ukrainians using russian.) But if someone spoke only russian before, it would be an effort to learn Ukrainian and they would probably only do it if they moved to some place like Kyiv or Lviv where it would likely impact their everyday life.
The support for pro-Russian talking points in the "East" of the Ukraine is very uneven, it was and is strongest in the Crimea, then Donbass/Lugansk, but less than Crimea and weakens even more gradually as you go West geographically, roughly speaking. This seems to have held fairly well since the 90s in all events from elections of all levels, to protests (intensity and success of local government takeover for example) and now - the war.
There were nation wide polls in 2013 before ruZZia invaded. Every oblast voted "not" to be alligned with Moscovites anymore. 63 percent in crimea was the lowest but still the majority wanted freedom from ruZZian exploitation. Every other oblast was high 70's or more against ruZZian alignment. This and the discovery of huge gas fields off Crimea was why Putler invaded. Ukrainians are now united in their hatred of ruZZia more than ever. They will never be a part of the moscovite horde exploitation machine again.
@@alexeyamosov664 It arguably could but Countries joining is even more accurate term. And when talking geopolitics, many can wrongly assume that expansion mean annexation.
People dont believe that it was a coup because of any reasons. They believe it was a coup because they _want_ to believe it was, and them they went and constructed reasons to substantiate their belief.
I have couple remarks (as a participant): Such a strange map of Ukraine is used. The river that is in Belarus shown fully inside Ukraine and Kyiv is in the shown in the center of the country instead of the north. Kharkiv is also in the wrong place. As many other cities. Additionally blurred pictures of violent clashes from February are shown when talking about events in the beginning of December, which may strongly mislead watchers to think the protests started violent immediately. The actual outrage that started the mass countrywide protests was the use of riot police to violently disperse the few hundred people who stayed at Maidan threw the Friday night from 29th to 30th November. And even then it was mass gatherings that government tried to disperse softly at first and increasingly more violent with time. Other than that it is a pretty dissent video for an average watcher who has little interest in details (which I still think are important).
Agreed on all accounts. "Winter on Fire" did the events much more justice, though admittedly, K&G gets props for breaking down some of the behind the scenes politics during the whole ordeal. The funny thing to me was this video's inference that the revolution was closer to a coup than in reality because of the roles "Opposition Leaders" played during the events. What *isn't* mentioned however, is that the revolution was SO grassroots led that any time an "Opposition Leader" tried to take charge, or even use the events for their own political aspirations, say by getting on stage with a megaphone, they would immediately be booed off said stage or even pelted with flour to shut them up. Euromaidan was probably one of *the most* textbook examples of a revolution. It was a popular uprising created by the people, for the people, of the people. Slava Ukraini!
Excellent video!!! 10/10. I had to stop it several time to think about it. So refreshing after so much algorith trash. I must use the search bar more often.
I've never accepted the Russian argument that it was a coup. A coup is something like what has happened in Niger, Sudan, Burkina Faso, the coup by General Sisi in Egypt or the coup by General Musharraf in Pakistan. In all these cases, it was carried out by generals, unlike Ukraine. Only security forces can make a coup happen. In 2014, the Berkut were fighting the protesters for months. What finally led to the revolution was when they opened fire on the protesters. In fact the day before Maidan, the opposition and the government had agreed a form of powersharing, in talks that involved Russia. Unfortunately, Yanukovych seems to have had no intention of abiding by it, as the shooting of the protesters showed. He then fled in a helicopter to Kharkiv, where he hoped the mayor Kernes would support him. This did not happen. Kharkiv is a Russian speaking city, but still did not support Yanukovych. This was a revolution, not a coup.
These people won’t care about facts. That’s why they refuse to acknowledge that fleeing Ukraine for 8 years as a president is effectively dereliction of duty, and the illegal annexation that he did not sanction legally as head of Ukraine. This is classic Russia trying to strong arm their neighbors into being subordinates. This is why Eastern Europe joined NATO
Not just security forces, also elites who have the support of part of the security forces/their own forces (private military or mercenaries) and little to no resistance from other parts of society (relatively speaking). For example Wagners coupd might have worked if enough of the security forces decided to just stay neutral or even got split in supporting/stopping it.
Im not saying it was a coup, both sides alaways try to intervene but go research about victoria noland what she said about ukraine. USA for sure was in their interest what happened in ukraine
Acurate. thanks for the report. Russian perception won't change though. i had so many calm and rational discussions with them on that topic. They simply don't see the alternative to their interpretation and put all blame on the so-called "WEST". this remains an unexplained wonder for me
I love The reaction after you ask for proof, and they’re unable to prove their own claim. Or you’d have them proving past instances, but nothing directly with this. Like do these people not realize Putin is the one with power due to someone else’s coup (Gorbachev)
@jtgd typical Russian bot. When Russian use some translation applications to auto translate into Ukrainian, the result is exactly the same as a comment about. Report the guy above, please, if you read it 🙏 cheers
Watching this brilliantly laid out timeline felt like a series of blinding reminders. Thank you. I came lookimg for a clear account of the run up and political backdrop to the series of conflicts in Ukraine as i keep reading references to a fascist coup in 2014 and i think i started to assimilate that into my perception of that period.
Search for a video called "Maidan Revolution Bird's Eye View" it will give you goosebumps. If you want to supplement this video, one of the last lectures in Snyder's lecture series on Ukrainian history deals with this. Starsky also talks about how they organised the protection groups for the protesters, as a military historian who knows a bit about Revolutionary warfare, I will say they were smart and effective.
I think this is where that it leads us to the Russian take over of Crimea, and a small war in the Eastern part of Ukraine and lastly the Russian invasion of Ukraine
I have only one important point to add. K. Malofejew is never mentioned here. As far as i know, he advised first Putin about Yanukovich and his bad possibility to stay in power. He prepared a plan (strategy papers), where he was advising what to do when Yanukovich dismissed…and why it would be so important to hold at least parts of Ucraine, or at least Crimea. And only then later it would be possible to re-form their Novorossiya. Therefore he met Yanukovich, after he fled on Crimea, where also Girkin and other ultranationalists were waiting to talk about and to decide. That’s why the Annexation happened so fast, the green men were coming that quickly and weapons could be transported fast to Crimea.
On the "sniper conspiracy" - don't most sniper rifles generally use the same standardized caliber as other weapons? Would it even be possible to distinguish between a 7.62mm bullet from a SVD and a 7.62mm bullet from an AK-74, especially after they'd been fired into someone? And even if it is, wouldn't those calibers be some of the most accessible firearms to both sides in this context? I find it completely plausible that there were snipers helping the protests. I'd be surprised if there weren't. The protesters managed to procure other kinds of guns as the revolution dragged on - I see no reason why some gang of enterprising young Ukrainians wouldn't have taken it upon themselves to find an insufficiently mobile, cautious, or reinforced police sniper, jump him, take his gun, and turn it on the cops. It seems like the obvious thing to do when your protest movement is confronted by police snipers. But that's hardly evidence of a conspiracy at any level, let alone one engineered by the USA. (Unless you count the USA's tendency to make globally popular media about gun-toting, freedom-loving individualistic action heroes as a "conspiracy.")
There are several stereotypes and misconceptions presented in the video. First of all southern and eastern regions of Ukraine never were Russian-speaking. Only the regional centers and big towns in those regions were Russian-speaking. Entire rural area spoke and still speak Ukrainian there. Secondly, people never were pro-Russian in a sense of "unite with Russia" or "we are Russians". They simply feared to lose their income from trade with Russia and they were the victims of pro-Russian propaganda spread by Yanukovych regime. After the revolution and subsequent Russian aggression people did not support Russian attempts to install separatist governments. In fact, Russia succeeded in installing fake governments only in parts of Donbas solely due to military takeover by paramilitary groups that mostly consisted from Russian citizens who came from Russia. Since 2014 people outside of Donbas did not vote for rebranded former Yanukovych´s party - they voted for pro-European parties in all regions except for Donbas. Thirdly, Yanukovych is shown in this video as a good guy who started doing bad things only during the revolution. This is a total bullshit. By 2014 Yanukovych was hated by the majority of population, even in his home town in Donbas. Police and special forces were led by direct Russian agents. Army was scrapped and sold during the Yanukovych presidency since Russia prepared for the future war. Yanukovych gifted entire regions to his criminal friends and they ruled in a criminal style with attacks on buisnesses and demanding additional unofficial patments. Even people of Crimea were angry since the region was given to Donetsk mafia. People who spoke Ukrainian were constantly discriminated - it was close to impossible to receive service in Ukrainian in many regions despite it was the only official language. It was obvious that any next elections would have been rigged since Yanukovych and his cronies planned to be in power forever. The revolution was inevitable. If not in 2014 then after the next rigged elections in 2015. And Putin knew for sure about it and prepared his plan to take Crimea and federalize Ukraine via installing puppet governments in the half of regions.
Has the role of the killermachines from Academi ever been revealed? Whether its called coup or revolution...I'd like to know more about the deeds done by Academi in the Ukraine...but nobody talks about it.
I guess calling the Euromaidan a coup can only be the idea of somebody who couldn't imagine that the people itself has a will too. Because he lives in a dictatorship, or even works for one ;)
If a country's people are pushing for Democracy and less corruption, the democratic world should do all it can to help. With the rise of far-right fascism and some far-left ideology in the world........ Democracy needs to win at all possible.
There was so much optimism about Ukraine post-Maidan and their steady pieces of reforms being undertaken... police, administration, governance, customs, etc. They were heading in the right direction, instead of the cacique state Russia and Belarus are in.
As the person who was in Kyiv through the whole thing, let me try to add and clarify a few things: 1. Yanukovich is shown as a more balanced politician, but he was not really, seeking only personal benefit in everything he did. The level of corruption, while he held the power, was just ridiculous. 2. You mention political opposition parties as the thinking tank or as the leaders of protesters, it’s not true at all. When the first group of berkut was sent to beat the protesters, it was the middle of the night, and the people left on Maidan were mostly students, half protesting half partying, playing guitars etc. After that the uproar in society started in social networks with the words “They beat our kids” (not some political slogan, basically a Vox Populi) which led to more and more people going to Maidan, only then the opposition parties started to join and try to organize an “HQ”, they were not a driving force behind the protests. Most things on Maidan were self-organized by people groups (in the same manner as some defense units were self-organized during russian invasion in 2014 and later in 2024). Many opposition leaders were booed from the Maidan stage or not supported by protesters as well. 3. During the whole revolution not a single shop or boutique was robbed by marauders, and people on Maidan organized groups of people to patrol so that this will not happen. Things I see in the news from protests in France and other EU countries make me question the intentions of protesters there.
16:35 separate police units started joining the protests 17:33 the riot police guarding yanukovych … left 20:04 the police and the SBU … stayed loyal until the end Why the inconsistencies?
@@KingsandGenerals I seem to recall seeing that the snipers that were firing at the people wore Berkut uniforms but had small RuZZian tricolour patches on their arms.
@@G.A.C_Preserve Putler was pissed off at Yanukovych for being "too easy on the protesters"---and sent him a spetsnaz force. Ukrainian Berkuts were not all that anxious at killing Ukrainians, so more anti-Ukrainian Berkuts(Anti-Ukrainian Ukrainians) were brought in from Crimea and then snipers from RuZZia. You know the RuZZians always want to be superior--and so somehow show their superiority. I saw tiny tricolours on their upper arms--not big insignia!----more like a tiny piece of orange, black ribbons you see---- even smaller like some designer logo. This was entirely different from the little green men who wore NO insignia. They were already easy to distinguish because the Ukrainians had different uniforms and wore Ukrainian insignia!
@@alexeyamosov664 it has happened multiple times in the past indeed. And i think you summed it up nicely : first a revolution, followed by a coup. Two distinct events, and as an incorrigible romantic i'd call that a failed revolution. But i'm pretty sure we could also find some instances of planned coup spinning out of control and turning into a full fledged revolution too if we look closely. 😉
You're right about that, but the thing is that bottom can be manipulated by powerful people interested in a coup, so it would not be a genuine popular movement.
Ukraine's very first Prime Minister, Volodymyr Vynnychenko (in 1917) described the history of Ukraine as, "violent and tragic." You can be forgiven for crying, I think.
The people are sovereign, any government whose power does not come for the people is in essence illegitimate. Therefore a popular revolt or revolution cannot be a coup, for the true power and authority comes from the public.
All of Putin’s appeals to morality and legality went out the window as soon as he “annexed” southern and eastern Ukraine. He laid bare his true intentions for Ukraine that day.
If the people of DOnbass truly, dearly wanted their independance, on their own. Then they would have been in the right, all the way. The SECOND Putin put Russian boots on Ukrainian ground, this was no longer about independance.
Werent the people of the donbass trying to get their independence through seperatist soldiers. I mean who cares if those seperatist soldiers are in the russian army right...
@@Watchyourselvez You clearly do absolutely no reading about this topic. Putler has made it blatantly clear in his rhetoric that his goal is to take Ukraine. Your "belief" doesn't matter at all when we're dealing with plain facts here. This isn't religion ffs.
always been a fan of history, being born in 2000, I never knew about this stuff. it's good to know now but since the invasion i've been more and more aware of current events to include what's happening in Niger as well, china in africa, china v india, etc.
The main issue is Russia having this obsession with refusing to play nice with the West. If Russia would have just left Ukraine and other former Soviet territories alone then Russia would be significantly richer and not have this awful war happening.
The difference is that Ukrainian land was formerly Russia before it became Ukraine. Kiev was one of the main capitals of Russia and consequently many Russians recognise it as Russia which is understandable.
@@UpcdtdS That's terrible logic. By that logic Italy can claim France, Turkey, and England. Mongolia can claim most of Asia. Mexico can claim the entire Western US etc. People need to be realistic and look at the people currently in areas rather then what was way before their grand parents were even born.
@@keiththoma2559 You do realise Kiev was the old capital of Russia and Russia actually existed where Ukraine now stands right? The examples you used are way out. 🤣🤣👍
@@UpcdtdS Mexico owning Western US was more recent. Also you are ignoring all the history post that such as Holodomor and Russian empire suppressing Ukrainian language and culture before then.
A good synthesis. I suspect your narrative is a bit too gracious to Yanukovych, as my understanding is that there are clear signs that there was never any actual intent to sign the EU agreement. The fact that Yanukovych's reaction to the protests was violent suppression, along with his flight to Russia when his regime was overthrown is rather telling about what his core alignment was all along. In addition to this, one fact about the decision to sign the EU Association agreement you ommitted: It seems that Yanukovych as the standing Chief Executive of Ukraine in 2013 DID NOT have the authority to suspend the signing as this superceded a decision to adhere to the requirements specified by the EU and to sign the agreement by a qurom of the Ukrainian parliament: - QUOTE - On 22 February 2013, a resolution was approved by 315 of the 349 registered members of the Verkhovna Rada stating that "within its powers" the parliament would ensure that the 10 December 2012 EU Foreign Affairs Council "recommendations" are implemented. - END QUOTE - In any event: Yanukovych caved in to pressure from Putin instead of pressure from his people, i.e., the protesters. When "demoratically" elected executives adhere to the demands of foreign powers in opposition to those of their constituents, they have effectively illegitimated their authority to rule and it is incumbent on a people to overthrow such incipient tyrants BEFORE they achieve dominance. That is what the Ukrainian people did in late 2013 / early 2014.
@@LaVaZ000 You do realize that Zelensky is a democratically elected president, right? President who was elected in a free and fair elections, according to many universally-recognized election-watcher groups.
@@eberkovich How come all of the "pro-EU" or "pro-Western" presidents are "democratically elected", yet whenever it's a figure who doesn't follow their agenda, he is a "tyrant" and an "oppressor" regardless of the fact that he was elected democratically as well. Everyone in the world knows that even the "leader" of the "free world" was installed, not elected.
Kudos to a very well made video K&G! Though I would have liked some more discussion on the sniper false flag allegations. Do you have any thoughts or rebuttals to the peer-reviewed albeit disputed research by Canadian-Ukrainian professor Ivan Katchanovski on this matter? Engaging in good faith here - keep up the good work!
The first 1,000 people to use my link will receive a 1-month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/kingsandgenerals08231
More informative than anything mainstream media.
Could you disclose your sources for your videos, please?
It was a revolution that the ppl of donbass and crimea didn't sign up 4
The idea that the CIA boogeyman was able to force mobilize millions of Ukrainians into the streets of Kyiv to overthrow their government is simultaneously moronic and laughable. Russian propaganda never ceases to amaze me, and the fact that some people lap that assertion up as if it were true is both amusing yet worrisome.
I don't think there is anything THAT unbelievable about a country whose near entire existence has been spent under the oppressive thumb of the Russian "empire" finally wanting their own true independence, free of a Russian puppet government & president.
The United States fought a war for independence in 1775, now it's Ukraine's turn. Good for them.
#SlavaUkraini
@@bobchris9423Do you truly believe the Russian state department puts out accurate numbers and information, especially regarding whether the territory they stole would or would not want to be part of Ukraine instead of Russia? Get real dude
I think it is vitally important to note that while the European Union was negotiating with Ukraine they were also dealing with the Greek Crisis. They could only offer so much to Ukraine because they were insisting on austerity in Greece.
Wellll, at that time putin also had a lot of european politicians helping him. Just look at those leaders like Berlusconi, Sarkozy and Merkel. Making a deal with pootin for cheaper energy resources in exchange for influence was a no-brainer for them.
Okay, now I feel bad
@@oleksii000 a lot of weirdos were and still are buddy buddy with putin. Le Pen, Trump, Bolsonaro, Netanyahu, Viktor Orban etc etc.
Clasic Greece moment
@@boarfaceswinejaw4516yep, but at least it is visible now. I guess a lot of people were thinking that cheap energy resources is just an accomplishment of those corrupt clowns, where in reality ruzzia helped them to get elected.
@16:20 Reportedly, the chief of staff was dismissed for refusing to use the army to supress the protests without a written order. The deputy chief of staff was then asked to do the same, which he refused and resigned of his own volution.
If employed against its own people, armies become absurd.
The main goal of the army is to deal with external threats. Those 2 military officiers were right. Civil war should not include military, as military must be here to defend if there is an invader.
And they were right. Police and other ministery of the interior forces have the task keep the order in the country, not the military.
There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people
Watching Winter on Fire documentary really gave me a lot of respect for the people of Ukraine. They've been through a lot since 2014.
Hands down the best documentary.
They’ve been through a lot ever since Russia existed to screw them over.
Not since 2014, but from much earlier times. Check Holodomor 1921-1923, then 1932-1933, then 1946-1947 large-scale manmade famine killing millions of Ukrainians, or even pre-soviet time when Ukrainians were prohibited from speaking the Ukrainian language. Russia tried to eliminate Ukrainian language and culture for hundreds of years.
@@artem8193 yes definitely they did a good job russia won't be able to win this war and after watching that im now 100% sure they won't win
@@hejsapo1572 Oh, a paid by Putin propaganda made by his friend Oliver Stone who asked Putin to be God father for his daughter, you mean? If you glorify a fascist country, it tells me a lot about yourself.
Well technically the American Revolution was a French supported uprising. But even the French couldn't expect its breakthrough success. Napoleon once famously stated: We have created the most fierce competitor for the British on the Seas.
Lots who support Kremlin rhetoric don’t know world history
The French didn’t officially support the American Revolution until after Saratoga and Napoleon wasn’t involved
Yes and he’s implying at the end you wouldn’t call that a coup similar to how you wouldn’t call euromaiden a coup
Spain and the Netherlands were also involved, it wasn’t just France involved.
@@alexanderhoye
The quote from Napoleon would have been after the war...
Euromaidan made me interested about ukraine. Up to this day I am still following the news about Ukraine. 🇵🇭🤝🇺🇦
For me it was the Orange Revolution ❤
@@Patir_Sigmagodzilla had a stroke after reading your comment 🎉🎉
@@Patir_Sigma what?
@@PalleRasmussen So Yanukowych couped himself?
@patirPersib just because the us supported Ukraines integration into Europe doesn't mean Russia can invade the east and steal crimea
great job, it's a pity you didn't cover the "Dictatorial Laws of January 16" after which Yanukovych had 0 chances to hold power, he angered even his ardent supporters among the citizens. Because according to these laws, everyone had the opportunity to go to prison for the absurd, for example, a traffic jam. Or a ban on head protection on the street - Cyclist? Builder - You can literally go to jail because of hastily designed laws for these rallies
This and also kinda wish K&G would put Winter on Fire and some videos of the actual protest, for example the first violent accident, where Yanukovich Berkut encircled the protesters at night and took a revenge at them. Video also doesn't mention __where__ did Yanukovich and Berkut flee.
@@mamai_ethThey used to add actual footage until UA-cam started taking down their videos for it.
If I remember correctly the helmet rule was within a certain area, it didn’t extend all over the city. Of course I’m remembering something from a tv news report 8 years ago.
If you hire a bike to ride around Yanukovych’s “palace” you have to wear a helmet… the irony 😂😂
Yep, that sounds Russian. Checks out
@@saberint that's why you don't ride a bike, you gonna own a custom built bullet proof motor van instead and a RPD-80 and stereo speakers just in case you ran out of bullet (Playing the machine gun noises instead)
Videos like this are very important for understanding why there is conflict in Ukraine today. Also will there be a video on the annexation of Crimea and the Donbas war?
Ya, down the line
Let's gooo, keep up the fantastic work guys@@KingsandGenerals
@@KingsandGenerals I hope you would not forget about Girkin from Moscow and Wagner in Crimea. Or what did happen to Crimean Tatars.
@@KingsandGenerals When you make a video about Crimea, please note that the seizure of the parliament of Simferopol began even when Yanukovych was officially in office. There is even a Russian medal for the annexation of Crimea with a date.
@@KingsandGenerals "The war in Donbas" makes it sound like a civil war, which is was not, , you need to call it "Russia's war in Donbas". How do I know ? I am not Ukrainian but I was there living in Makiivka (my Ukrainian wife's flat, she lost that one). Bought one in Pokrovsk to replace it, we had to leve as its too dangerous to be there (i.e. effectively lost for now) - we've been IDP for over a year, imagine not being home in 0ver a year, that sucks . At the time in 2014 I saw these bandit army guys and heavy weapons come out of nowhere. They even put a big gun right next to our flat, that's maybe a war crime to hide big guns close to civilians and then use them, making them a target for return fire.
I recall watching Winter on Fire a long time ago, it's simply mind boggling that the flames of freedom so close to being extinguished are now pillars of State, unyielding to the Ruzzi Menace. I salute you Ukraine yet again, you've shown time and again your impossible feats.
@@one.girl...1you're right. They had a lot of chances to rebel against Putin especially when progozhin tried to gather support and march on Moscow. This is no longer just Putin's war, this is Russia's war. Perhaps Ukraine is right to take the bombings to Moscow. The Russian have all stated they hate the war, but they do nothing to stop it. I know some of them do and are actively fighting against him, But not enough Russians are trying. They claim they don't support the war, they should prove it with actions not words.
@@one.girl...1I've been guilty of saying all those things. But, you're right: the Russians had every opportunity to stop this war. They still can.
You are the nazi @@one.girl...1
Watch 'Ukraine on Fire' instead!
@@stufox8174 That is a pro-Kremlin piece of propaganda and it doesn't even try to hide it. Netflix's recent Cleopatra "documentary" is more accurate.
As an aside, Ivan, do ask your comrades to return the stolen Scythian gold to Ukraine. Please and thank you.
I was in Kyiv when Maidan was happening and it was a beautiful show of love, strength and solidarity for freedom that we as Ukrainians hold.
Originally from Mariupol, I was in Kyiv to get my VISA to come to America.
Whatever the interference there was by the West, I know one thing for sure. EVERYONE wanted to join Europe and leave toxic russia behind.
And if the West was helping us, we were pretty happy about that.
Hii I am hope you're doing fine now. I am so sorry about what happend to your city and hope it will be liberated soon. Mariupol is Ukraine. I hope you and your family are save
Слава Україні!
@@dylanvogler2165 unfortunately it's probably going to take a while for Mariupol to rise. But when it happens, it will be beautiful! Cheers 💙💛
Honestly the whole narriative falls apart just looking at Zelensky.
Coups do not place center left liberals in power, he's about as non radical as politicians get.
@@samwill7259also note that before being elected as president Zelensky wasn't very fluent in ukranian and was mostly speaking russian and yet 73% of people voted for him. Thats all you need to know about russian myth that russian speaking people were oppressed and needed to be defended by putin. Also I have a friend in Donetsk region (part controlled by Ukraine) he still speaks russian and nobody is bothering him for that. Half of Ukraine Armed Forces speaks russian and that's ok. So russia just made up all those myths to have at least some justification for their war of conquest.
So was I! I used to walk through the protest lines most days to get to and from work… I got to speak to lots of the police and protesters during that time.
I rememeber back in 2014 when we were seeing headlines of ISIS and Ukraine I became so invested in world politics. Seeing the state of UA today makes me sad but glad to see that since 2014 back when I didn't have much hope that Ukraine would survive as a country. I'm glad I was wrong and the world see's their struggle and although slow at helping they are helping . Slava Ukraini
@@daquemasquieren Many people left Ukraine, many died. But we will never give up. There are still a lot of us here, and we will stand until the last drop of blood. We stood, we stand and we will stand.
@@ВладКиселёв-ш4и I wanna say you guys have the single lowest birthrates in europe, on top of having had huge swaths of your male population die or just leave. Good luck with that long term.
@@daquemasquieren Are you kidding? Ukraine's done an amazing job so far. If Russia fully mobilizes, then Ukraine will surely have more problems, but even then defeat is not even remotely close to certain... the horrible supply of worthy equipment & the failure of organization of Russia's military is struggling mightily right now, and more boots on the ground will likely exacerbate that problem even further. Ukraine's practically working a miracle considering the situation, shouldn't forget that. It's looking more and more like they will survive.
@@ActionAlligator 'Are you kidding? Ukraine's done an amazing job so far. ' to lose 10 mln people in 40 mln country is like for the US to lose the 80 million in a matter of several years. I doubt Ukraine will ever fully recover.
' Ukraine's practically working a miracle considering the situation,'
They initially faced 190k invasion force and now it's much bigger. I wouldn't tell it's really good. However the chances of them even surviving probably was small - but 'what did it cost?'
@@Iv4Bez 10 million people? WTF are these Russian numbers? Russian bot #43423423, reporting in? You're so full of sh!t lmfao. Look at _Russia's_ losses from this pointless invasion... loss of economic and financial power, loss of military personnel, equipment, and military reputation; now tell me if Russia will ever recover. Everyone was assuming Ukraine was going to instantly crumble, except they didn't, now did they? And now Russia has shown the world what a joke their military force is, and a needlessly brutal one at that committing war crimes left and right and incessantly bombing civilians. Cope harder.
I have lived in Kyiv all my life. The revolution happened when I was 8. I will never forget how my grandfather and I went to the Maidan and stuck a sticker "I'm not here for the money", I remember the crowd, the barricades, the smoke. Then my parents forbade me to be there when people started dying, but they went themselves, delivered food to the tent city. these events left a deep mark on me and, I think, on all Ukrainians. Ukraine will always be free, democratic and will never again fall into Moscow's clutches. Glory to Ukraine
🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
You will regret americunt gay sex dumbocracy and you won't be allowed to.
Stay strong, my friend.
😂😂😂
@@tubeyou8728Never heard of Vitali Budko the pro-russian provocateur who shot an ucrainian activist dead before the accident happened??
So, first, no junta ever existed, you are worthless, and you are telling BS, russian narratives 1:1
This type of question (coup or not) exists in Honduras in 2009. That crisis and its aftermath is an equally interesting story.
Probably next is a video from these guys asking if Allende was really victim of a coup. Hahaha everyone is so happy with this video, we all heard Victoria Nuland coordinating the coup, the rest is western propaganda.
In Egypt too
i am not familiar with the honduran case, but ukraine was definetely a revolution. not even a question there
@@ricomuru9486 ah yes so Victoria Nuland and the US just helped with the revolution and picked the new leader haha.
@@jtruque >Victoria Nuland.
Komsomolskaya Pravda tier misinfo. Laughable.
I've been waiting for Perun to cover this difficult topic for over a year now.
I'm glad you guys have. You've struck a reasonable balance, and defended your position with facts.
Still, the hate mail will be entertaining. Share some of it. We could use a laugh.
I think Perun is more of a military economics type of guy. He doesn't really bother in political stuff that much.
It's always been interesting to me that some people refer to the Maidan Revolution as only a "coup". It's one thing if the army overthrows a government out of the blue, it's quite another thing if the military steps in after weeks or months of mass protests by people demanding the current regime/government resign or if there is a parliamentary vote that ousts the current leader from power. There's an implied meaning in the word "coup" of "the army/security services/or one faction overthrew the government by violent force without any consent from ordinary citizens." and this simply just didn't happen in the case of the Euromaidan Ukraine uprising.
Calling it a coup would imply a small group is working against the wishes of the population. It's been a thing to say the West was influencing/funding/supplying the protests to make them look undemocratic and the result of Western interference, not due to concerns by the Ukrainian people.
A "coup" rarely results in general elections after, unless those elections result in a 90+% approval rating of the new guy. ;) Pretty simple to define the difference. LOL ua-cam.com/video/dn5f0-y71tE/v-deo.html
Never heard it referred to as a coup in any of my interactions with the event.
I guess I'm immune to Russian propaganda 😜
@@Sajuuk Overthrowing of a government is a coup if you haven't heard it mentioned at all you need to broaden your news sources. All sides use propaganda just cause you support Ukraine doesn't mean you close your eyes to the truth.
@@ravanpee1325 Obviously why those same oligarchs supported his assassination when Ukraine was invaded last year...
Also, politics in Ukraine suffers from some major Soviet hangovers. It was very common for political rivals to attack each other using platforms like television and media that they themselves owned. People who mock Zelensky for being a comedian forget that he was also the owner of a significant media company not unlike previous political candidates.
The subject is ofc handelt excellently, but
OMG THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. Not only is the artwork amazing, but even the maps feel so much sleeker. I love it! Keep up the amazing work guys!
Nice work. But i think it was worth also point out that also was protests before start of revolution -"Tax maidan". Many ppl in east was in support of Janukovich after Jushenko but his corruption was very bad so we had maidan at Kharkiv too.
Is there any news about it in YT?
I was working with a Luhansk woman (1/2 Russian/Ukrainian) back in 2014, I remember her being very cynical about politics in her home country. Basically, that nothing was going to change except going from a pro-Russian oligarch to a pro-EU oligarch.
The changes are slow for sure but the direction matters a lot. Thats why Ukraine went nowhere in last 30 years under russian influence.
@@fungunsun1 Yeah, at the time I felt it wasn't appropriate to talk about anti-corruption measures that aligning with the EU would bring. I know there is EU corruption; however, it is way less than Russian corruption.
The topic got even harder to talk about when her mom, who was still living in Luhansk, was sending her daughter pictures, calls, etc while the city was being encircled.
Ukrainian people started to do much better without ruZZia.
So RuZZia invaded
It was like that in Ukrainian politics for most of it's post-soviet history, but luckily after the revolution progress started to be made.
@@PerfectDeath4encircled by who?..
Also, you reminded me that I would love to see you do a series (or two) about the French and Indian War and the American Revolution in North America.
I don’t like when western media put the question of Russia vs Europe as the main question in Ukrainian politics. I totally get why though but as much as it was about European Union, the main goal of the revolution was to remove corrupt President and corrupt politicians. Who were not only stealing huge amounts of money for them and their families and friends, but also had the audacity to apply power and kill protesting civilians. Yeah this was against Russia and in favor of EU, however, I strongly believe that had Yanukovych be pro-EU and continued to do what he did, the revolution would still happened sooner or later
Ya because the current regime is any less corrupt...😒
Exactly! It was about the fundamentals of their democracy being violated right before their eyes and the people fought back. This was the same case with the Orange Revolution of 2004.
Yanukovic took a Russian loan offer with fewer strings than the EU offer. He tried to bring all sides to support him but somehow got them all against him.
The EU was always going to harp on the levels of corruption and demand more stringent measures. EU would take baby steps towards inviting Ukraine.
Ukraine failed to get EU membership, but then also pursued NATO membership. As if the Russian bear would ever be okay with that.
Yanukovych had been bought by RuZZia----He began allowing the FSB to re-enter Crimea, installed RuZZian Officers into the Ukrainian Government (key positions), appointed anti-Ukrainian military staff to high positions who slowly disarmed the armed forces allowing for easy takeover of Crimea.
And what they have now? Corruption is not eradicated. And they on bad terms with Russia. So all for nothing.
I still remember when the police beat and stripped one of the protesters naked in front of everyone to humiliate him. He was naked in the freezing snow with cameras recording him.
They threw protesters into freezing rivers with concrete blocks!
0:47 "In this video, we will describe the events of the Revolution of Dignity and try to find out if it was really a revolution or, *as Russian propaganda claims,* a coup."
The funny thing is that your phrasing already reveals your conclusion.
That is called a thesis statement. You describe what you are going to talk about in your video/essay/whatever.
It was obviously NOT a coup!
K&G tried to explain both arguments (even RuZZia's ludicrous one) to the general public who may have had little to no knowledge of the events---If they had, and had a brain, it would have been obvious that it was NOT a coup---NO change in GOVERNMENT--means no coup!
@@KingsandGenerals I see his point; it's positioning - which is kind of propaganda - to make the assertion 'as Russian propaganda claims' knowing that it isn't just Russian 'propaganda'. There are also many respected, and highly qualified academics and experts on Russia, NATO and US foreign policy who also make the claim.
SURE HE IS...When someone describes ideas of flaterthers or reptilian conspiratists, no one pretends he tried to take it seriously. No one in his mind takes Russian nonsense seriously anymore....
A coup is also usually a planned effort. Euromaidan looks more like a messy series of reactions. Not a coup.
Those can be incited easily by outside forces
@@Chicano_pistoleroyet the proof for this is still to be presented. Which we never get because there is none.
unknown personel in military gear using riot/crowd control tactics is evidence of some organization/interference from an unknown who isn't civilian.
Which is alarming for everyday individuals.
With no training, sophisticated networks, or access to a means to defend themselves.
@@whiskey4o4 Stop comparing the west to the east. Police in eastern europe arent trained and are corrupt. the east isnt the same as the west, its like saying people in japan live a certain way and then using those parameters to judge south africa. lol.
lways the sped nes with some name thats meant to sound wise lol
Coup is a change of policy forced from the top, a revolution is a change that started from the bottom, from the people.
This is the difference, and the explanation why Maidan, was in fact, a revolution
Then why we know for a fact that usa politicians, like their ambassador in Ukraine, were talking about who to put in power next? These is the stolen audio of the calls, they aren't from the bottom.
Well with your logic it is a coup, it is from the top not the bottom because the US government controlled it. COUP.
All historic events we refer to as a 'coup', share these 3 things:
1) The overturn was done by clearly distinct group of people. You always could say whether this specific person was in or not.
2) It was done as an operation according to a specific plan.
3) It had clearly defined goal (in prevailing most of cases - getting the power and holding it as long as possible)
On the other hand, historic events known as 'revolutions' are very different in all 3 aspects:
1) Done by broad masses of people, most of whom are hard to clearly attribute whether they are revolutionaries or not. There are activists, but their role is mostly to agitate and instigate the crowd.
2) Events are mostly chaotic, at least at the beginning. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow not to say in a week. There are some sort of leaders, but they are mostly trying to ride the wave rather than create one. On later stages the events may become more organized, but they start from chaos, often coming out of the blue.
3) The only common goal for all participants is to destroy the current order. Opinions about what must happen next among revolutionaries may be very different so that if the revolution wins, it may be followed by civil war between different factions of winners.
Applying this pattern, the conclusion whether Maidan was a coup or revolution is a trivial task.
Great video, as usual. The Euromaidan was a subject I didn't know enough about. But I must say, the map of Europe used in the video is a bit inaccurate. It seems as though Russia has annexed western Lithuania and eastern Finland, and the borders in the Balkans seem lazily drawn (especially the serbo-hungarian border and the one Greece and Bulgaria shares with Turkiye). I don't expect the borders to be perfect, but I think it would increase the credibility and quality of the video if they were more accurate.
I strongly suggest watching "Winter on Fire", a great documentary on the subject
Thanks for the video. I've been on maidan few times during the revolution (I live in Lviv). Was in Kyiv when Lenin statue was thrown down, but missed that. Overall the vibe of Maidan felt so special - everyone is helping each other, unity and fraternity (even between people with politically opposite views). I remember building barricades of ice with random fellow maidan protesters all night during freezing January night (it was unusually cold that year) before formations of riot police. I'll never forget the sense of purpose
Very high-quality analysis of events, thanks for the work👍🏻
A lot of respect for the continued coverage of Ukraine and its history. Most channels fell off except for some clickbait stuff.
You guys should be proud of the body of work
Excellent video; I have always thought Ukraine plan of joining NATO was more an excuse, or at best a secondary issue, for Putin's real concern regarding Ukraine; in my opinion, and this video helps my point, Putin's main concern is Ukraine joining EU which would definitely economically and politically (and even culturally) effectively remove Ukraine from Russia's sphere of influence.
Even more, I think, he's very aware Ukraine could become EU's agricultural powerhouse, which would eventually make them rich, and therefore completely and entirely out of Russia's influence. In general rich countries stop being puppets of others and have the financial advantage to pay fo anything they need to make sure the autonomy is respected. i.e South Korea, Singapore, UAE come to mind.
Other cases which come to mind but which are not entirely there yet are: Baltic countries, Uruguay (low-key becoming the richest Latin country per Capita, Vietnam)
I think the bigger issue is how similar russia and ukraine are. If Ukraine became a wealthy, democratic western country, it would show it is possible in Russia as well.
@@cameronwixcey9692 Yes I agree with that too
All those factors influence the constructive/destructive nature of relations, but the genesis of the unraveling of Russian/Ukrainian cooperation was the bypassing of Ukrainian pipelines by Russia and Germany. Also Singapore and UAE are new countries
@santiagocarreno5881 Your ignorance on this is astounding for how contrary it is to the historical record. Putin was explicit: He didn't have a problem with Ukraine joining the EU, since the EU was not a military alliance.
@@johnstrawb3521Ah yes, because Putin always tells the truth?
Wow an ambitious topic; glad UA-cam is allowing it
Thank, you K&G. Awesome video, very informative as always and very valuable in our era of spreading shіt by russia and it's consuming "truth seekers" among not very smart people. I was a student in Kyiv then, remember that times exactly as it was yesterday. 2014 was a tough year and the brightest memory i have from the yanukovich’s era is me waiting for the bus and the ambulance car standing and waiting while the cortege of some official d.ickhead to pass the street. That regime was bloodsucking and no surprise it ended up in a such way.
Now you can see why Ukraine wanted change from the Russian system of corruption and intensity of said corruption in all its formes, which still has to be delt with. Fir Ukraine to have a bright future and have a legal and prosperous future is to win this "bloody" war. That Russia has unleashed on the people of Ukraine. This is were it stops after centuries of russian interference in Ukraine.
Ну зато современный режим, массово гонящий людей на убой, ни капли не кровососущий
Yanu: *cracks down on protests*
Protests: *intensify*
Yanu: *runs to grovel at his master vladmirs feet like a good dog*
parliament: "the president abandoned his post and ran to hide in a foreign country, the constitution says we should form a new government"
Yanu and his master vladmir: "doing what the constitution says you should do when the president runs away is unconstitutional and a coup😭😭"
You Ukrainians are some sell outs. You would rather befriend the enemy of your brothers and sisters in Russia than be united as one with them. Soon you people will see. Take a look at Libya, Iraq, and the rest of countries the west “liberated”. They turned into banana republics. The westerners don’t want nothing but your oil. And once they secure your oil reserves. You the citizens of Ukraine will be left on your own to fight among each other.
Probably the best video covering Euromaidan I've seen! Thank you! 💛💙
It's funny how nobody talks about how "ProFFessor" Yanukovych was a bandit and even was in prison...
Two times in prison. Very illiterate, so he got the nickname "professor". Could not speak Ukrainian properly. Therefore, he was a laughing stock and a meme creator.
@@yevhenpelivanov6736 the nickname "proFFessor" comes from Yanukovych's own misspelling on his curriculum. Also he was no academic at all.
@@yevhenpelivanov6736Kuchma and Zelensky didn't speak Ukrainian until after they became president.
@@hajime2k And yet they were able to learn it. Unlike Yanukovych.
We always appreciate your hard work and dedication towards these videos. Your huge fan from Sri Lanka 🇱🇰🤝🏴
Well done. That's a useful summary of the revolution od dignity.
Seeing as how you are doing a fair lot of Modern Affairs videos will you do videos about (for example) the Tigray War, the Chechen Wars or the Syrian Civil War + The War on Al-Qaeda?
Down the line. There are things we know better
@@KingsandGeneralsThis Ukraine stuff will fade like the Pacific series, if it continues too long, better to add another series!
The pelopponesian war series is aldredy made so you are simply editing and releasing them!
@@samanyupalthi Well Ukraine still going on so...
@@samanyupalthithe difference is the Ukraine war is still happening and the Pacific war ended 80yrs ago
This is what I wrote my final paper on when I was in a class on geopolitics in college. It was all about the Euromaidan and how both the West and Russia were actively interfering in the sovereign business of the people of Ukraine. America certainly did make it a little bit easier for Russia to make the claims of fascism and Ukraine now even though they are completely unfounded as the nationalist parties with the farthest right leanings are such a minority in the government at the moment but I remember a picture of John McCain's standing next to the leader of svaboda and the deputy Secretary of State under Hillary Clinton essentially talking about who the post yanukovych cabinet would comprise of. Eventually Ukraine took control of their own destiny but there was certainly a time when both the west and Russia were trying to manipulate its future. And I will admit this at the time there were a lot of individual activities going around that's did promote the idea that there was a far-right element throughout the revolution and at the time that was undeniable that there was a very minority group that maintained ideologies of that nature during those times such as the man who entered Parliament with an AK-47 demanding that all Russians Jews and Communists leave, or the nationalist Street action that took up arms against the police and roamed the city looking for scapegoats to beat. All that being said those individuals were still a minority and while it is important to remember that they did and still do exist, that people like them exist in every country in the world and that nationalistic far-right and fascistic behavior is present in every country especially in the western world. Russia certainly has a problem with it and so it would be like throwing stones in a glass house especially considering that Putin himself has a book written by Konstantin Rodzaevsky prominently positioned in his office and if you don't know who that is I recommend looking him up because he is a very prominent Russian fascist that collaborated with the Nazis and Japanese. The events discussed in this video were important for the future of Ukraine and were largely dictated by the people of Ukraine through peaceful where possible means, however we cannot deny that there was interference at the time from both the west and Russia often stoking the violence or taking advantage of individual Actors for their own geopolitical ends
This is the only nuanced comment on this video.
@@Jonathan-se7jy thank you that actually means a lot, because there is nothing about Ukraine that is simple or black and white. It is a complicated conflict with a very nuanced History. In the end the Ukraine conflict has three layers, the destiny of the Ukrainian people, the polarized destiny of their economic future, and their purpose in the geopolitical game. None of these three layers individually tells the whole story and each of them has a perspective from opposite ends that, when told together, can help people understand the truth.
@@tavenstrickert9658nothing is simple in geopolitics. You have the dozens of internal forces pushing your country to their dream state while also having to weigh your position on the international playing field.
US politicians visiting Ukraine and showing moral support is hardly even worthy of the label 'interference', also the "talking about post Yanukovych government call" (that's the Nuland call) was about the deal Yanukovych offered Yatsenyuk and Klitschko to calm protesters, Nuland suggested Yatsenyuk accept it (he didn't). This also goes against the idea that the US tried escalating, suggesting Yats take the deal was the complete opposite.
In this time, Russia threatened Yanukovych, suggested he should react harshly to protesters, bribed him and effectively embargoed Ukraine.
The two are not even remotely comparable.
You guys should take the scripts of all these episodes and publish it in a book
Respect from Tbilisi.
Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦
Glory to Georgia 🇬🇪
thanks a lot for creation of this video. Very good coverage of the events. I would like to note that my home town Dnipro(showed as a part of russian speaking industrial east) was always kind of split 50/50 between pro western and pro russian views. After 2014 invasion it was like 70 % pro western 30% pro russian. So it's not just a question of geography or language, it's a division based on values, on the future look of Ukraine.
Hey mate, I have a question, how much “pro Russian” are this separatist movements (LPR and DPR)? And does the people of those areas supports them?
@gigachaddusmaximus7612 this is a tricky question. Yes, initially in 2014 there were quite high support of the "friendship with Russia". However only a minority wanted to start a war against their pro western neighbors. That's why most of the job was done by russian citizens like Girkin. When the war started (in 2014) around 30% of the occupied parts of the Donbass population fled to other Ukrainian cities, other 30% fled to Russia and abroad. Among those who stayed most pro ukrainian people were either murdered or jailed, others were brainwashed by russian propaganda. So at some point most of the people who stayed there were pro russian, but over the time this was also not stable because everyone saw that while in Ukraine there was some progress, in those DPR LPR nothing good was happening. And before 2022 already a lot of people moved or wanted to rejoin to Ukraine (hard to tell about the exact numbers, nobody can do proper polls there). And now Donbass people mostly hate Russia (I think you can imagine why).
@@artemduk9808 thank you for the information and stay safe mate, Slava Ukraini.
I spent over 3 months in Dnipro in 2014 and this mirrors my observations. After Crimea was annexed and war in Donbass started, more and more people turned against Russia. Everyone was still speaking Russian tho..
@@zeeninetynine That’s because russian was a first language for a noticeable population of Ukraine, and was very much a second language for most Ukrainians. And as far as I understand, it wasn’t uncommon to hear Ukrainian and russian being spoken concurrently. Ironically, russia’s own invasions have created a lot of the anti-russian language sentiment themselves, and as a result, it’s pushed many Ukrainians away from using russian (I have a friend who gets quite legitimately angry when she hears Ukrainians using russian.) But if someone spoke only russian before, it would be an effort to learn Ukrainian and they would probably only do it if they moved to some place like Kyiv or Lviv where it would likely impact their everyday life.
That statement about the American Revolution not qualifying as a French-backed coup was spot-on! I was thinking the exact same thing.
I've actually used that exact analogy on trumptards, and it always amazes me to see their heads explode, left speechless.
The support for pro-Russian talking points in the "East" of the Ukraine is very uneven, it was and is strongest in the Crimea, then Donbass/Lugansk, but less than Crimea and weakens even more gradually as you go West geographically, roughly speaking. This seems to have held fairly well since the 90s in all events from elections of all levels, to protests (intensity and success of local government takeover for example) and now - the war.
There were nation wide polls in 2013 before ruZZia invaded.
Every oblast voted "not" to be alligned with Moscovites anymore.
63 percent in crimea was the lowest but still the majority wanted freedom from ruZZian exploitation. Every other oblast was high 70's or more against ruZZian alignment.
This and the discovery of huge gas fields off Crimea was why Putler invaded. Ukrainians are now united in their hatred of ruZZia more than ever. They will never be a part of the moscovite horde exploitation machine again.
Which is why the people of Kharkiv, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya said "NO" to the Russians during that fateful Spring of 2014.
Technically, at timing 2:20, in 1991 the EU wasn't expanded to the Eastern European countries
True, but I believe he was demonstrating the situation at the time of the revolution.
The EU doesn't expand anywhere. Countries decided to join and it takes a long time.
@@andysalter7779expansion is the action of becoming larger or more extensive. Why can’t term “expansion” be used there?
@@alexeyamosov664 It arguably could but Countries joining is even more accurate term. And when talking geopolitics, many can wrongly assume that expansion mean annexation.
People dont believe that it was a coup because of any reasons. They believe it was a coup because they _want_ to believe it was, and them they went and constructed reasons to substantiate their belief.
I have couple remarks (as a participant):
Such a strange map of Ukraine is used. The river that is in Belarus shown fully inside Ukraine and Kyiv is in the shown in the center of the country instead of the north. Kharkiv is also in the wrong place. As many other cities.
Additionally blurred pictures of violent clashes from February are shown when talking about events in the beginning of December, which may strongly mislead watchers to think the protests started violent immediately. The actual outrage that started the mass countrywide protests was the use of riot police to violently disperse the few hundred people who stayed at Maidan threw the Friday night from 29th to 30th November. And even then it was mass gatherings that government tried to disperse softly at first and increasingly more violent with time.
Other than that it is a pretty dissent video for an average watcher who has little interest in details (which I still think are important).
Agreed on all accounts. "Winter on Fire" did the events much more justice, though admittedly, K&G gets props for breaking down some of the behind the scenes politics during the whole ordeal.
The funny thing to me was this video's inference that the revolution was closer to a coup than in reality because of the roles "Opposition Leaders" played during the events.
What *isn't* mentioned however, is that the revolution was SO grassroots led that any time an "Opposition Leader" tried to take charge, or even use the events for their own political aspirations, say by getting on stage with a megaphone, they would immediately be booed off said stage or even pelted with flour to shut them up.
Euromaidan was probably one of *the most* textbook examples of a revolution. It was a popular uprising created by the people, for the people, of the people.
Slava Ukraini!
Excellent video!!! 10/10. I had to stop it several time to think about it. So refreshing after so much algorith trash. I must use the search bar more often.
I've never accepted the Russian argument that it was a coup. A coup is something like what has happened in Niger, Sudan, Burkina Faso, the coup by General Sisi in Egypt or the coup by General Musharraf in Pakistan. In all these cases, it was carried out by generals, unlike Ukraine. Only security forces can make a coup happen. In 2014, the Berkut were fighting the protesters for months. What finally led to the revolution was when they opened fire on the protesters. In fact the day before Maidan, the opposition and the government had agreed a form of powersharing, in talks that involved Russia. Unfortunately, Yanukovych seems to have had no intention of abiding by it, as the shooting of the protesters showed. He then fled in a helicopter to Kharkiv, where he hoped the mayor Kernes would support him. This did not happen. Kharkiv is a Russian speaking city, but still did not support Yanukovych. This was a revolution, not a coup.
These people won’t care about facts. That’s why they refuse to acknowledge that fleeing Ukraine for 8 years as a president is effectively dereliction of duty, and the illegal annexation that he did not sanction legally as head of Ukraine.
This is classic Russia trying to strong arm their neighbors into being subordinates.
This is why Eastern Europe joined NATO
Not just security forces, also elites who have the support of part of the security forces/their own forces (private military or mercenaries) and little to no resistance from other parts of society (relatively speaking).
For example Wagners coupd might have worked if enough of the security forces decided to just stay neutral or even got split in supporting/stopping it.
Im not saying it was a coup, both sides alaways try to intervene but go research about victoria noland what she said about ukraine. USA for sure was in their interest what happened in ukraine
@@flyingberserker3965 "USA for sure was in their interest what happened in ukraine" - as well as Russia.
The reason it was a coup is because of the United States meddling.
A video only about maidan, it's crazy !! Just à spectacular documentary !! Keep Going on you got my full support
Acurate. thanks for the report. Russian perception won't change though. i had so many calm and rational discussions with them on that topic. They simply don't see the alternative to their interpretation and put all blame on the so-called "WEST". this remains an unexplained wonder for me
Chinese are like this too, very easy to be brain washed.
I love The reaction after you ask for proof, and they’re unable to prove their own claim.
Or you’d have them proving past instances, but nothing directly with this.
Like do these people not realize Putin is the one with power due to someone else’s coup (Gorbachev)
@jtgd typical Russian bot. When Russian use some translation applications to auto translate into Ukrainian, the result is exactly the same as a comment about. Report the guy above, please, if you read it 🙏 cheers
USA did there a coup. Good morning.
@@jtgdCalling the Gorbachev situation a "coup" is like calling American press "free".
Watching this brilliantly laid out timeline felt like a series of blinding reminders. Thank you. I came lookimg for a clear account of the run up and political backdrop to the series of conflicts in Ukraine as i keep reading references to a fascist coup in 2014 and i think i started to assimilate that into my perception of that period.
I love your videos on the modern times ......you give us a new and more nuance perspective than mainstream media ever could
one very wise youtuber told me that if a channel has a sponsor then they are not totally objective.
Completely false. Sponsors don't have any editing right beyond their promo spot.
It should be noted that the entire sniper situation had previously occurred during the russian constitutional crisis two decades earlier.
I've heard about Euromaidan, but I never understood what was going on. Thanks for covering.
Search for a video called "Maidan Revolution Bird's Eye View" it will give you goosebumps.
If you want to supplement this video, one of the last lectures in Snyder's lecture series on Ukrainian history deals with this. Starsky also talks about how they organised the protection groups for the protesters, as a military historian who knows a bit about Revolutionary warfare, I will say they were smart and effective.
I think this is where that it leads us to the Russian take over of Crimea, and a small war in the Eastern part of Ukraine and lastly the Russian invasion of Ukraine
I have only one important point to add. K. Malofejew is never mentioned here. As far as i know, he advised first Putin about Yanukovich and his bad possibility to stay in power. He prepared a plan (strategy papers), where he was advising what to do when Yanukovich dismissed…and why it would be so important to hold at least parts of Ucraine, or at least Crimea. And only then later it would be possible to re-form their Novorossiya. Therefore he met Yanukovich, after he fled on Crimea, where also Girkin and other ultranationalists were waiting to talk about and to decide. That’s why the Annexation happened so fast, the green men were coming that quickly and weapons could be transported fast to Crimea.
On the "sniper conspiracy" - don't most sniper rifles generally use the same standardized caliber as other weapons? Would it even be possible to distinguish between a 7.62mm bullet from a SVD and a 7.62mm bullet from an AK-74, especially after they'd been fired into someone? And even if it is, wouldn't those calibers be some of the most accessible firearms to both sides in this context?
I find it completely plausible that there were snipers helping the protests. I'd be surprised if there weren't. The protesters managed to procure other kinds of guns as the revolution dragged on - I see no reason why some gang of enterprising young Ukrainians wouldn't have taken it upon themselves to find an insufficiently mobile, cautious, or reinforced police sniper, jump him, take his gun, and turn it on the cops. It seems like the obvious thing to do when your protest movement is confronted by police snipers. But that's hardly evidence of a conspiracy at any level, let alone one engineered by the USA. (Unless you count the USA's tendency to make globally popular media about gun-toting, freedom-loving individualistic action heroes as a "conspiracy.")
Thank you for all the information in this video
There are several stereotypes and misconceptions presented in the video.
First of all southern and eastern regions of Ukraine never were Russian-speaking. Only the regional centers and big towns in those regions were Russian-speaking. Entire rural area spoke and still speak Ukrainian there.
Secondly, people never were pro-Russian in a sense of "unite with Russia" or "we are Russians". They simply feared to lose their income from trade with Russia and they were the victims of pro-Russian propaganda spread by Yanukovych regime. After the revolution and subsequent Russian aggression people did not support Russian attempts to install separatist governments. In fact, Russia succeeded in installing fake governments only in parts of Donbas solely due to military takeover by paramilitary groups that mostly consisted from Russian citizens who came from Russia. Since 2014 people outside of Donbas did not vote for rebranded former Yanukovych´s party - they voted for pro-European parties in all regions except for Donbas.
Thirdly, Yanukovych is shown in this video as a good guy who started doing bad things only during the revolution. This is a total bullshit. By 2014 Yanukovych was hated by the majority of population, even in his home town in Donbas. Police and special forces were led by direct Russian agents. Army was scrapped and sold during the Yanukovych presidency since Russia prepared for the future war. Yanukovych gifted entire regions to his criminal friends and they ruled in a criminal style with attacks on buisnesses and demanding additional unofficial patments. Even people of Crimea were angry since the region was given to Donetsk mafia. People who spoke Ukrainian were constantly discriminated - it was close to impossible to receive service in Ukrainian in many regions despite it was the only official language. It was obvious that any next elections would have been rigged since Yanukovych and his cronies planned to be in power forever.
The revolution was inevitable. If not in 2014 then after the next rigged elections in 2015. And Putin knew for sure about it and prepared his plan to take Crimea and federalize Ukraine via installing puppet governments in the half of regions.
By *Pro-Russian propaganda😂😂
Has the role of the killermachines from Academi ever been revealed? Whether its called coup or revolution...I'd like to know more about the deeds done by Academi in the Ukraine...but nobody talks about it.
I guess calling the Euromaidan a coup can only be the idea of somebody who couldn't imagine that the people itself has a will too.
Because he lives in a dictatorship, or even works for one ;)
If a country's people are pushing for Democracy and less corruption, the democratic world should do all it can to help. With the rise of far-right fascism and some far-left ideology in the world........ Democracy needs to win at all possible.
Since 2016, Russia hasn't show any restrain using violence against civilians.
Then why Kiev and Lviv still exist and they're not bomber into rubble yet? There must be some restraints.
There was so much optimism about Ukraine post-Maidan and their steady pieces of reforms being undertaken... police, administration, governance, customs, etc. They were heading in the right direction, instead of the cacique state Russia and Belarus are in.
You're doing a million dollar job. Keep it up. This is the way
Brilliant video. One of the most informative I have seen.
Love the artwork
Thanks for sharing. 👍
Great job again! Very well researched and insightful video. I hope it will help some russian supporters to open their eyes
As the person who was in Kyiv through the whole thing, let me try to add and clarify a few things:
1. Yanukovich is shown as a more balanced politician, but he was not really, seeking only personal benefit in everything he did. The level of corruption, while he held the power, was just ridiculous.
2. You mention political opposition parties as the thinking tank or as the leaders of protesters, it’s not true at all. When the first group of berkut was sent to beat the protesters, it was the middle of the night, and the people left on Maidan were mostly students, half protesting half partying, playing guitars etc. After that the uproar in society started in social networks with the words “They beat our kids” (not some political slogan, basically a Vox Populi) which led to more and more people going to Maidan, only then the opposition parties started to join and try to organize an “HQ”, they were not a driving force behind the protests. Most things on Maidan were self-organized by people groups (in the same manner as some defense units were self-organized during russian invasion in 2014 and later in 2024). Many opposition leaders were booed from the Maidan stage or not supported by protesters as well.
3. During the whole revolution not a single shop or boutique was robbed by marauders, and people on Maidan organized groups of people to patrol so that this will not happen. Things I see in the news from protests in France and other EU countries make me question the intentions of protesters there.
too much stupid Putin propaganda. Pretend to be fair and honest to spread lies and propaganda to normalize Putin steal and murder.
What about the man jumping from the burning building surrounded by neo nazis?
@@CosmicValkyrie what building?
@@ohajohaha i guess you didn't watch that video of the maidan coup.
@@CosmicValkyrie ...what coup? I know of UEFA 2012 cup, but a coup? Nope.
Well done!
thank you very much for the video from Kyiv, Ukraine
Great video as always!
16:35 separate police units started joining the protests
17:33 the riot police guarding yanukovych … left
20:04 the police and the SBU … stayed loyal until the end
Why the inconsistencies?
Different police units.
Let me tell you something, this aren't a FPS games where the enemy is well-defined with red dots on their clothing and stuff like that
@@KingsandGenerals
I seem to recall seeing that the snipers that were firing at the people wore Berkut uniforms but had small RuZZian tricolour patches on their arms.
@@WangAiHua that's weird consider that troops they sent to Donbas later on don't have any insignia
@@G.A.C_Preserve
Putler was pissed off at Yanukovych for being "too easy on the protesters"---and sent him a spetsnaz force. Ukrainian Berkuts were not all that anxious at killing Ukrainians, so more anti-Ukrainian Berkuts(Anti-Ukrainian Ukrainians) were brought in from Crimea and then snipers from RuZZia. You know the RuZZians always want to be superior--and so somehow show their superiority. I saw tiny tricolours on their upper arms--not big insignia!----more like a tiny piece of orange, black ribbons you see---- even smaller like some designer logo.
This was entirely different from the little green men who wore NO insignia. They were already easy to distinguish because the Ukrainians had different uniforms and wore Ukrainian insignia!
You definition of coup is indeed correct, and completely destroys any argument from tankies and similar creatures.
Great work, thank you K&G
I think a simpler way to distinguish a coup from a revolution is if the impulse is a top-down or bottom-up movement, does that make sense ?
What if the impulse is sent “bottom-up”, and then a coup staged by hardliners who want to suppress the protest movement harshly?
@@alexeyamosov664 it has happened multiple times in the past indeed. And i think you summed it up nicely : first a revolution, followed by a coup. Two distinct events, and as an incorrigible romantic i'd call that a failed revolution.
But i'm pretty sure we could also find some instances of planned coup spinning out of control and turning into a full fledged revolution too if we look closely. 😉
You're all ignorance
It was NOT a coup---NO change in GOVERNMENT--means no coup!
You're right about that, but the thing is that bottom can be manipulated by powerful people interested in a coup, so it would not be a genuine popular movement.
What if a new revolution in Belarus successfully followed Ukraine's example from a decade ago?
Is it OK if I cry a bit because of the modern Ukrainian history?
Ukraine's very first Prime Minister, Volodymyr Vynnychenko (in 1917) described the history of Ukraine as, "violent and tragic."
You can be forgiven for crying, I think.
Well done!
Thank you, great explanation
Complex and interesting
Great video keep it up you're doing amazing things 😁👍
This video is incredible :O
The people are sovereign, any government whose power does not come for the people is in essence illegitimate. Therefore a popular revolt or revolution cannot be a coup, for the true power and authority comes from the public.
So the mob decides? Naw. Also the public can’t organize so they can never rule. You need elites for that.
@@AA-bn7tf 🤮
A government that does not serve the will of the people are slavers.
A people who allow it are slaves.
the problem is that then, you may argue that any big movement has a legitimacy to remove a president ?
@@MrThhg 🪣🧽😒 bruh I just cleaned that
Thanks!
All of Putin’s appeals to morality and legality went out the window as soon as he “annexed” southern and eastern Ukraine. He laid bare his true intentions for Ukraine that day.
And what was his intentions? To annex the whole country? Is this what you believe?
@@Watchyourselvezno he just send his army to kiev to have a chat with his buddies....
If the people of DOnbass truly, dearly wanted their independance, on their own. Then they would have been in the right, all the way.
The SECOND Putin put Russian boots on Ukrainian ground, this was no longer about independance.
Werent the people of the donbass trying to get their independence through seperatist soldiers. I mean who cares if those seperatist soldiers are in the russian army right...
@@Watchyourselvez You clearly do absolutely no reading about this topic. Putler has made it blatantly clear in his rhetoric that his goal is to take Ukraine.
Your "belief" doesn't matter at all when we're dealing with plain facts here. This isn't religion ffs.
always been a fan of history, being born in 2000, I never knew about this stuff. it's good to know now but since the invasion i've been more and more aware of current events to include what's happening in Niger as well, china in africa, china v india, etc.
What invasion lol
Can you guys, look at a fucking map, for once. Give Lithuania the fucking Klaipeda and Kursiu nerija back.
😂😂
great great content ，thanks from China
The main issue is Russia having this obsession with refusing to play nice with the West. If Russia would have just left Ukraine and other former Soviet territories alone then Russia would be significantly richer and not have this awful war happening.
Ukrainian history books do describe the "russian federation" as the third iteration of the "russian empire." It's not wrong at all.
The difference is that Ukrainian land was formerly Russia before it became Ukraine. Kiev was one of the main capitals of Russia and consequently many Russians recognise it as Russia which is understandable.
@@UpcdtdS That's terrible logic. By that logic Italy can claim France, Turkey, and England. Mongolia can claim most of Asia. Mexico can claim the entire Western US etc. People need to be realistic and look at the people currently in areas rather then what was way before their grand parents were even born.
@@keiththoma2559 You do realise Kiev was the old capital of Russia and Russia actually existed where Ukraine now stands right? The examples you used are way out. 🤣🤣👍
@@UpcdtdS Mexico owning Western US was more recent. Also you are ignoring all the history post that such as Holodomor and Russian empire suppressing Ukrainian language and culture before then.
I'd like to hear Roger Petersen give his definition of a revolution.
This video is at the image of your chanel : clever, well research and so interresting. Thanks.
A good synthesis. I suspect your narrative is a bit too gracious to Yanukovych, as my understanding is that there are clear signs that there was never any actual intent to sign the EU agreement. The fact that Yanukovych's reaction to the protests was violent suppression, along with his flight to Russia when his regime was overthrown is rather telling about what his core alignment was all along. In addition to this, one fact about the decision to sign the EU Association agreement you ommitted: It seems that Yanukovych as the standing Chief Executive of Ukraine in 2013 DID NOT have the authority to suspend the signing as this superceded a decision to adhere to the requirements specified by the EU and to sign the agreement by a qurom of the Ukrainian parliament:
- QUOTE -
On 22 February 2013, a resolution was approved by 315 of the 349 registered members of the Verkhovna Rada stating that "within its powers" the parliament would ensure that the 10 December 2012 EU Foreign Affairs Council "recommendations" are implemented.
- END QUOTE -
In any event: Yanukovych caved in to pressure from Putin instead of pressure from his people, i.e., the protesters. When "demoratically" elected executives adhere to the demands of foreign powers in opposition to those of their constituents, they have effectively illegitimated their authority to rule and it is incumbent on a people to overthrow such incipient tyrants BEFORE they achieve dominance. That is what the Ukrainian people did in late 2013 / early 2014.
Ukrainians are a vivid example of the people's victory over a tyrant, a courageous and strong-spirited people.
But Zelensky or whatever is still in charge? What are you talking about?
@@LaVaZ000you tankies love making yourselves look stupid don’t you?
@@LaVaZ000 You do realize that Zelensky is a democratically elected president, right? President who was elected in a free and fair elections, according to many universally-recognized election-watcher groups.
@@eberkovich How come all of the "pro-EU" or "pro-Western" presidents are "democratically elected", yet whenever it's a figure who doesn't follow their agenda, he is a "tyrant" and an "oppressor" regardless of the fact that he was elected democratically as well. Everyone in the world knows that even the "leader" of the "free world" was installed, not elected.
@@eberkovichyou can be democratically elected and still be a tyrant
Kudos to a very well made video K&G! Though I would have liked some more discussion on the sniper false flag allegations. Do you have any thoughts or rebuttals to the peer-reviewed albeit disputed research by Canadian-Ukrainian professor Ivan Katchanovski on this matter? Engaging in good faith here - keep up the good work!
It is a conspiracy with no tangible proof.
I am from Ukraine. Everything in the video is true!!!!
Another example of a coup Recently Niger democratically elected leader knocked by the military just another idea of a coup.