{"id":47458,"date":"2021-02-20T20:33:36","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T20:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=164939"},"modified":"2021-02-20T20:33:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T20:33:36","slug":"ukraine-marks-seventh-anniversary-of-euromaidan-bloodshed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/20\/ukraine-marks-seventh-anniversary-of-euromaidan-bloodshed\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Marks Seventh Anniversary Of Euromaidan Bloodshed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wsw\">\n<p>KYIV &#8212; Ukrainians have marked the seventh anniversary of the shooting deaths of dozens of participants in the Euromaidan anti-government protests that toppled the country&#8217;s Russia-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych, in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The commemorations honored those who were killed in the capital, Kyiv, during clashes with Yanukovych&#8217;s security forces on February 18-20, 2014.<\/p>\n<p>President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena, laid flowers at the so-called Monument of the Heavenly Hundred in Kyiv&#8217;s Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) on February 20.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eternal memory to all those who died for the future of Ukraine,&#8221; Zelenskiy said at the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Gatherings were held across Ukraine on February 20 to commemorate those killed during the Euromaidan protests.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wsw__embed\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/ukrainians-mark-anniversary-of-deadly-shootings-of-euromaidan-protesters\/31111280.html\" title=\"Ukrainians Mark Anniversary Of Deadly Shootings Of Euromaidan Protesters\" class=\"img-wrap\"><span class=\"thumb thumb16_9\"><\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/d12a9cdb-125e-4114-ac01-9d9632482d81_w250_r1_s.jpg\" alt=\"Ukrainians Mark Anniversary Of Deadly Shootings Of Euromaidan Protesters\" \/><\/p>\n<p> <img data-src=\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/d12a9cdb-125e-4114-ac01-9d9632482d81_w250_r1_s.jpg\" alt=\"Ukrainians Mark Anniversary Of Deadly Shootings Of Euromaidan Protesters\" \/><\/span><\/a> <span class=\"label label--media label--inverted m-l-sm\">Photo Gallery:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"title title--media title--inverted m-l-sm\">Ukrainians Mark Anniversary Of Deadly Shootings Of Euromaidan Protesters<\/h4>\n<div class=\"c-lightbox__intro-source\">\n<div class=\"c-lightbox__intro-content\">\n<p>Ukraine is marking the seventh anniversary of the bloody end of the mass street protests that ousted Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych and in which some 100 people were killed, most of them between February 18-20, 2014.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"share js-share--expandable c-lightbox__sharing\" data-counter-separator=\".\" data-counter-url=\"\/a\/ukrainians-mark-anniversary-of-deadly-shootings-of-euromaidan-protesters\/31111280.html\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Some parts of Ukraine began honoring the slain demonstrators two days earlier, on the day when the shootings started.<\/p>\n<p>The Euromaidan movement began in November 2013 when protesters gathered on the central square in Kyiv to protest Yanukovych&#8217;s decision not to sign a crucial trade accord with the European Union. Instead, he sought closer economic ties with Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian prosecutors say 104 people were killed and 2,500 injured as a result of violent crackdowns by authorities against protesters.<\/p>\n<p>Shunning a deal backed by the West and Russia to end the standoff, Yanukovych abandoned power and fled Kyiv on February 21, 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The former president, who was secretly flown to Russia and remains there, denies that he ordered police to fire on protesters, saying that the violence was the result of a \u201cplanned operation\u201d to overthrow his government.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2014, shortly after Yanukovych&#8217;s downfall, Russian military forces seized control of Ukraine&#8217;s Crimean Peninsula &#8212; a precursor to the Kremlin&#8217;s illegal annexation of the territory through a hastily organized and widely discredited referendum.<\/p>\n<p>Russia also has supported pro-Russia separatists who are fighting Ukrainian government forces in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>More than 13,200 people have been killed in that conflict since April 2014.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2021\/02\/20\/ukraine-marks-seventh-anniversary-of-euromaidan-bloodshed\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KYIV \u2014 Ukrainians have marked the seventh anniversary of the shooting deaths of dozens of participants in the Euromaidan anti-government protests that toppled the country\u2019s Russia-friendly president, Viktor\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,23,24,376],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47459,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47458\/revisions\/47459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}