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.