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Nataliya took me to the activist media hub: the top of a hulking tower block filled with excited reporters — exulting in revolutionary access — staffing online TV stations and campaigning newspapers. Maidan, or what I had seen there, felt distant.

Morning was hopeful. But evening grew dark. I sat down to talk with the liberal icon Mustafa Nayem. "Fascist" is a word even Russian propaganda struggled to pin to him. Because Mustafa was born in Kabul, the son of Afghan refugees, and is now a Ukrainian media star.

Nayem was distracted. Bad news was rolling in. He kept repeating how unreal, how surreal, were both the revolution and these new rumours of war. Nayem was the man whose Facebook call to protest went  viral. "I hardly expected anyone to come. But thousands came. I had no plan. Nobody had a plan."

This was how Maidan began — the angry English-speakers of Kiev. This crowd was lamenting Yanukovych's decision to break off signing a crucial trade accord with the European Union. The crowds camping out in the rain were lamenting a turn backwards to Russia — which wanted Ukraine incorporated into its own customs union.

Nayem stressed: "There was more than one Maidan. Repression was a radicaliser."  The violence called people to the square. First came the thinking elite: men from the IT departments. Then came more: factory workers. Then came everyone: peasants from the West. Yanukovych turned to Putin. The stakes were now clear. Maidan had become a street battle for Ukrainian independence.

February was the cruellest month. Repression radicalised Maidan into a militia. Live rounds began. Negotiations broke down. Rightists from the square jeered politicians. Berkut fired on the crowds and tried to drive them from the square. Nayem was no longer leading events. The Pravy Sektor — the Right Sector — a radical and mysterious right-wing militia, led the final charge.

Yanukovych fled. There were days of joy. Mothers, fathers, children, militiamen wandered through his palace at Mezhyhirya. They used his toilet, sat at his desk. Ukraine was free to choose: the European Union and its lifestyle.

Putin struck back. It was more Blink-krieg than Blitzkrieg. Russian forces occupied Crimea. Putin was back in the game. Russian propaganda was becoming true. The Kiev militia were growing — and the fringe Right Sector, though out of power, at less than 5 per cent in private polls — felt in charge in the tents of Maidan.

Nayem was out of sorts that night. The entire office was out of sorts. It was sinking in that Russia forces had not only occupied Crimea, they were planning to annex it. There was a shudder: that meant war.

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Born
April 9th, 2014
5:04 AM
terrible lie in this article ... the author does not have a single drop of conscience...British media brainwashed people..

Anonymous
April 9th, 2014
4:04 AM
Good writing, great propagana, pathetic journalism. 6/10 - entertaining but factless.

danvolodar
April 9th, 2014
3:04 AM
>They were the ones who ran Russia's criminal puppets out of Kiev. Yes, Yanukovich was so much a Russian puppet he spent years planning and propagandizing joining the EU. >This crowd was lamenting Yanukovych's decision to break off signing a crucial trade accord with the European Union. The Association Agreement is supposed to be much more than a trade accord. And it was the choice of the EU to trade in promises of "integration" and present it as a "civilization choice", while factually the AA did not even include an easier visa regime. It was, however, purposefully designed to disrupt the trade relations with Russia, which accounted for about 50% of the Ukrainian trade balance. >The crowds camping out in the rain were lamenting a turn backwards to Russia — which wanted Ukraine incorporated into its own customs union. Except even the multibillion credits to be given to Ukraine had no such provision. >Russian TV broadcast fantasies: more than a million were fleeing Right Sector terror into Ukraine. Hysterical fantasies: the Right Sector had shuttered more than a third of the shops in Kiev. This simply contradicts the facts. >According to Russia, the Right Sector was in charge of the security service, while its hoodlums robbed in the streets. According to Ukraine, the far right got four minister seats in the "interim government". >And above all, they wanted Jewish blood. It's strange that I have to explain that, but not every Nazi or fascist is an antisemite. Make no mistake, both Svoboda (with Tyagnibok's tales of "Jewish-Moscal mafia controlling Ukraine" that "should be purged") and the Right Sector are, but it's generally about national and ethnic superiority, not antisemitism. When people claim they want "a national state" in a country with a 40% minority, yeah, you can count on them being Nazis. >It was almost as if Russia wanted the Right Sector. Why had they appeared from nowhere at the end of the revolution? The Right Sector was on the Maidan since the very beginning. There are multiple photos of rioters with shields emblazoned with their wolfsangel and 14/88. Take this famous photo for instance: http://i.imgur.com/Xi5XH6V.jpg >Nayem was an optimist: just give Ukraine stability and it could become a big, chaotic, metaphysical Poland. That is, a bland hole with gray rainbows with mass labour migration, subsidized economy and lower disposable incomes than even Russia? Cool beans, too bad the EU is not planning on letting the Ukrainians in. >The man, who had fought in both Chechnya and Bosnia Killing Russian conscripts in Chechnya is the meaning of brotherhood for an Ukrainian (brother nations, remember?), news at 11. Oh wait, that's not news, that was new twenty years ago. >Nataliya took my pen and began drawing circles of trauma in my notebook. The first circle, Maidan. The second circle, families of Maidan. The third circle, those watching Maidan. The fourth circle, those who had only heard of Maidan. Yep. The Internal Troops 18 year old conscripts and the rest of the law enforcement folks who had molotovs hurled at them for months? No trauma whatsoever. >True to their Cossack blood, they had shaved their heads but for one lock running over the top. The most funny part here, of course, that Cossacks utterly despised Ukrainians. >Was Tarasenko taking Russian orders? In Ukraine, everyone is taking Putin's orders, if the rumours are to be believed. From Yanukovich (stated as a fact in the article, too) to Timoshenko and from the far right to the far left. Putin's basically a medieval perception of Satan: everyone's his tool and plaything, willing or unwilling. >Right Sector boys meandered through the corridor. Who the hell were these people? Kremlin plants? Crypto-fascists? Killers? There was no way to find out. Is looking at the facts not one such way? I don't know, who could the people who torture their prisoners, including journalists, claim they want "a state a bit like Hitler's", assault government buildings when the decisions they don't like are made, and change TV station editorial policies by smashing the face of the chief editor be? The people who want to build "a national state" in a divided nation, and who use Nazi slogans and iconography? Hell, I don't even know, dadaists, I'd wager. >There were only black-red flags of the anti-Soviet partisans. I bet the Poles would be amused to know that the butchers of the Volyn slaughter were "anti-Soviet", even if the Jews aren't any more. >Hysterical crowds swallowed Sevastopol. Funny how Maidan is not "hysterical crowds swallowing Kiev", despite the rioters killing a dozen law enforcement officers and the Crimeans killing none. >The fake referendum was complete: Anschluss. And it's fake because you don't like it; and besides the Russians get no claim to self-determination, these animals. >Abroad, there was talk of resolve: but nobody said — from Washington to Berlin — they shall not pass. And only an idiot would expect otherwise. Russia is the sixth economy of the world and the largest nuclear power, only a fool would believe someone's getting in a fight with it over a third world nation. >Maidan was almost over. The lights went out on the stage. Oh, it's not over and it won't be over. February has passed, but October's coming. When the Ukrainians start to feel the IMF-demanded austerity measures, you can rest assured there will be riots on scale unprecedented.

From Russia
April 9th, 2014
3:04 AM
That is Very good article. The best.

AnonymousAndor
April 9th, 2014
12:04 AM
This Judah lives up to his namesake. What were smoking, Ben? Russian troops, tanks, helicopters. How about little green men, Ben?! Have you missed your Halyperidol again?

From Ukraine with love
April 9th, 2014
12:04 AM
The journalist is lier. The article is very unprofessional and stupid.

vadim
April 8th, 2014
11:04 PM
A lot of letters and a lot of lies.

alexz
April 8th, 2014
11:04 PM
BBC: Neo-Nazi threat in new Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBo0akeDMY

Anonymous
April 8th, 2014
10:04 PM
This is... deranged. Russophobia is getting ridicilous these days.

Anonymous
April 8th, 2014
9:04 PM
"How to write propagandistic tearjerker while not going anywhere, and get paid for it."

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