The Revolution of Dignity
From the Archives of Serhii Mykhalchuk 
June 2, 2022

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A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest, known as the Euromaidan, or the Maidan Uprising, sparked in Ukraine on November 21, 2013, with massive protests at Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. Protests erupted after the Ukrainian government abruptly decided not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, preferring instead to develop ties with Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The protesters were against what they saw as extensive government corruption, oligarchic influence, abuse of power, and violations of human rights in Ukraine.

The Euromaidan led to the Revolution of Dignity, also known as the Maidan Revolution, in February 2014, when lethal clashes between protestors and security forces in Kyiv resulted in the ousting of elected President Viktor Yanukovych and the overthrow of the Ukrainian government.

Following these events, Russia annexed the south Ukrainian region of Crimea, and an eight-year conflict broke out in Donbas between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists, culminating in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched by Russia on February 24, 2022, to demilitarise Ukraine, seeing the enlargement of NATO as a threat and demanding that Ukraine be barred from ever joining the military alliance.

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Photographed by Serhii Mykhalchuk in January-February 2014