Kyiv - 2014 - my three days in Ukraine

The Maidan revolution seems a distant event now...

KYIV - Ukraine

I watched a women walking down the street with fresh loaves of bread and a child in hand, threading her way between burnt out autos, smoldering piles of tires and wood that had been set up as barriers.

It was 2014.

Not long ago on these Maidan Square streets the Maidan Revolution saw the Ukraine people overthrow a corrupt government. > See link to Kyiv revisited

To me, unfamiliar with wartime environments, it seemed a surreal juxtaposition.

I was in Kyiv to video interviews with a few of those who were a part of the overthrow that had recently transpired. Theirs were passionate stories.

During my visit, I had only a few hours out on the street. There was the sense of a recent war zone, some burned out structures. But there was no presence of military, no occupying forces. Not even any police forces.

It was as if the organizers and embattlers who fomented this overthrow of a corrupt leader and his government had now left the city to right itself. Everyone, young and old, was grasping at fragments of celebratory life. In the midst of uncertainty, hope was was singing.

I was advised to stay away from the main square, especially with a camera. But it was easy for me to get caught up in the enthusiasm, and overlook all the usual concerns for safety and caution.

There was the proximity of Russian military who had just captured Crimea and with whom the overthrown leader was connected. And, it was said that the some of the supporters of the exiled Yanukovych were still wanting continue the fight. At any rate it became clear how removed I was from any intelligent understanding of the nuances of power unfolding before me. The energy texture of Ukrainians in the streets of Kiev, to say nothing of my inability to converse in their language, put me in a strictly visually receptive mode, projecting my own interpretation of events.

Isolated islands of claimed power drifted by, unruly packs of fatigue clad men, often carrying wooden clubs. Dangerous looking. But no outward appearance of identity to any group.

There was a momentary threat. I pointed my camera at one of the fatigue clad people, who I guessed to be a vigilante of some sort. He approached me with hostility, while whistling to his compatriots nearby. I thought that would  be the end of my camera. In an odd encounter, I told him I would delete the few images I had shot of him. I did so, and incredibly he was satisfied. I actually had just deleted only a couple random images – I still had the pictures of him

If there was a unifying theme, it was the desire to be a part of the European Union.  A desire to join with other Europeans. It wasn’t always clear to me who the opposing forces were. But they were there, as time would reveal.

But, for the moment, the people Kiev could go about their lives, trying to carry on with grace amidst the evidence of violence that surrounding their everyday living.

Where are we now ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_Dignity

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