Ukraine's 'Maidan Revolution'

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Throughout the winter of 2013/14 protesters built barricades and camped out in the centre of Kyiv demanding change. The focus was the Maidan, Kyiv's central Square of Independence. The demonstrators wanted the government of Viktor Yanukovych to move politically towards the EU and away from Russia, but when he refused to sign an agreement with the EU tensions spilled over. In February government forces, and snipers, shot dead 103 protesters and injured many others. Shortly afterwards President Yanukovych fled Ukraine and went to Russia. Elvira Bulat was a businesswoman from Crimea when the protests began. She tells Rebecca Kesby why she packed up her business, to spend that snowy winter in the barricades of the Maidan, and why she still believes Ukraine belongs in Europe.

Photo: Kyiv, Ukraine - December 9th 2013. Anti-government protesters stand guard at one of the barricades defending Maidan Square against police. Credit: Etienne De Malglaive/Getty Images.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds.
0:29.2	Hello and and as diplomatic efforts intensify to de-escalate the tension on the Russia-Ukraine border,
0:45.6	we go back to the events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014,
0:50.5	when mass peaceful demonstrations over the government's close links to Russia
0:55.0	ended up in bloodshed.
0:59.0	They gathered in the rain and in the snow through the gloomy winter singing the anthem of the European Union
1:05.5	with bespoke Ukrainian lyrics.
1:08.9	Ukrainians from across the country converged in the My-Dan, Central Kiev's square of independence, to demand the government
1:16.0	moved closer to the EU and further from the political influence of their imposing and
1:21.5	intimidating neighbour Russia. Among them was Elvira Bulat.
1:26.0	Ukrainian people we always choose Europe because we are feeling that we are European and
1:31.2	part of Europe. Mentality is different.
1:33.7	We are not Russian people.
1:35.1	We have another language, we have another culture,
1:37.2	we have another history.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.