How the coup d'état began in Ukraine #12

January of 2014 ended. Ukraine entered February with a severe internal crisis.

 Although, it should be noted that the intensity of the clashes subsided, small clashes occurred constantly on the streets of Kiev.

 In the center of the capital, protesters firmly held their positions, building more and more barricades and periodically clashing with security forces.

In the western and central regions, Euromaidan supporters seized and held administrative buildings of regional state administrations, regional councils, city and district administrations. Dozens of military units, primarily internal troops, were blocked to prevent the transfer of reinforcements to the capital.

 In turn, in the south and east of Ukraine, the authorities managed to repel the takeover attempts. And in some cities, public organizations began to assist the authorities in maintaining order.

Thus, in Donetsk, local public organizations of Cossacks and veterans of the war in Afghanistan began to organize voluntary squads in order help law enforcement agencies ensure order in the city.

 In Odessa, the leader of the Youth Unity organization, Anton Davidchenko, announced the beginning of the formation of “People’s Squad” units to protect the city from “nationalist radical organizations.”

And in Simferopol, at a meeting of the Association of Local Governments of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, chaired by the Speaker of the Crimean Parliament Vladimir Konstantinov, a decision was made to create Crimean voluntary squads in order to assist law enforcement agencies in protecting public order. The Crimean Tatar Mejlis (Council) made sharp protests against the creation of voluntary squads, which regarded this decision as a manifestation of separatism in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

 At the same time, in Kiev itself there were constantly tens of thousands of Anti-Maidan supporters who camped in the Mariinsky Park, not far from the Verkhovna Rada.

However, the government itself showed weakness and indecisiveness in matters of confrontation. The resignation of the prime minister, the repeal of the previously adopted “December 16” laws, flirting with the opposition - all this created the image of a weak government ready to make concessions.

 Add to this the colossal pressure from the West. Moreover, this pressure came at all levels: from representatives of the highest authorities in the United States to members of public organizations who personally took part in protests.

 Opposition leaders were also completely under the control of Western representatives.

Moreover, both sides did not even try to hide this control and active interaction directed against the current government.

 On February 1, Euromaidan leaders V. Klitschko and A. Yatsenyuk took part in the Munich Security Conference, where they held a number of meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry and European leaders.

And on February 3, Petro Poroshenko’s assistant V. Fedorchuk informed the political attache of the EU Delegation in Ukraine Clemente with his boss’s request: Poroshenko proposed that EU High Commissioner Ashton, during his upcoming visit, together with Poroshenko visit the hospital where the injured Euromaidan supporters were treated.

The parties agreed on this event, and you can't argue that it was very successful in terms of image for Poroshenko...

And on February 5, Victoria Nuland, US Deputy Secretary of State, again arrived in Kiev for a visit.

 And her visit program was very eventful.

On the very first evening she met with Vitali Klitschko, and on the morning of February 6 she held a meeting with all the opposition leaders - V. Klitschko, A. Yatsenyuk, O. Tyagnibok and P. Poroshenko. US Ambassador Pyatt was also present at the meeting.

And for the evening, V. Nuland had a meeting planned at the House of Trade Unions with Yuriy Lutsenko, but before that, the second secretary of the embassy, Stephen Page (a career CIA officer), informed her that the Security Service of Ukraine was carrying out operational measures against Lutsenko aimed at collecting information that could would become the basis for initiating a criminal case.

 Naturally, during the meeting, V. Nuland reported all the available information to Lutsenko.

One needs to take care of one's agents.

 Please note that the official representative of the US State Department did not hold a single meeting with government officials...

 But this visit was remembered by Nuland’s characteristic phrase, which she expressed in a conversation with Ambassador Pyatt - “Fuck the EU”.

That telephone conversation between Nuland and Pyatt became public.

 But in addition to swearing addressed at the European Union, in the conversation the American diplomats also discussed representatives of the Ukrainian opposition: “Should the leader of the Ukrainian opposition, Vitaliy Klitschko, join the new government?” No, Nuland believes. He will not get along with another opposition leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk. “I don’t think this is necessary, I don’t think this is a good idea,” says the assistant secretary of state. This is how the true reason of Nuland’s visit was revealed - the United States was deciding on the members of the future leadership of the country of Ukraine...

On February 6, several thousand demonstrators came to the building of the Verkhovna Rada, demanding that deputies vote for a return to the 2004 Constitution, which envisages a parliamentary-presidential form of government. The radicals, who hid their faces under masks, were armed with bats, sapper blades and shields. People's Deputy of the Batkivshchyna faction, commandant of the Maidan Andriy Parubiy said that the action was precautionary: “Next time we will take different actions.” As a result, the work of the Rada was interrupted for half an hour, after which the protesters began to return to Independence Square.

 At that time there were no serious clashes.

On the same day, February 6, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation in Ukraine, in which it called on the European Union to begin preparing targeted sanctions against foreign travel, assets and real estate of Ukrainian officials, parliamentarians, oligarchs responsible for the use of force against protesters and the death of opposition activists.

MEPs expressed concern about the military confrontation, condemning attacks on civilians, journalists, students, and representatives of civil society. The European Parliament called on Maidan protesters to “refrain from using force to maintain the legitimacy of their cause through peaceful means, and asks all opposition leaders to continue to refrain from violence and maintain peaceful protest.” The resolution condemns both the excessive use of force against protesters by law enforcement forces and the violent actions of ultra-radicals.

The European Parliament called for an end to the use of Berkut and other special forces for provocations, kidnappings, torture, beatings and humiliation of Euromaidan supporters. It was proposed to release arrested oppositionists, including Yulia Tymoshenko, without any preconditions.

 The European Parliament called on the Ukrainian authorities and the opposition to begin a serious dialogue in order to de-escalate the conflict and proposed to create a permanent mission in Ukraine to help relieve tensions and establish dialogue between the conflicting parties.

On February 7, Acting Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Vitaly Zakharchenko reported that, according to operational information from his department, right-wing radicals are preparing a terrorist attack in order to overshadow the start of the Winter Olympics in Sochi and attract attention to themselves. The opposition Batkivshchyna party called Zakharchenko’s statement an attempt to intimidate the public and emphasized that “it is the law enforcement agencies that are carrying out a large-scale campaign of terror against all citizens of Ukraine who are fighting for their rights and freedoms and opposing the authorities.”

On February 9, the next “People’s Assembly” was held on the Maidan square. Alexander Turchynov again called for enrolling in self-defense units, and Yuriy Lutsenko called on residents of the South-East of Ukraine to organize the “Eastern Maidan”.

And on the Maidan, a speech was given to activists by French citizen Bernard-Henri Lévy, who is called throughout the world “the chief technologist of color revolutions.”

   On that day, protests took place in Kharkov, Odessa, Sumy, Lutsk, Lugansk, Donetsk, and Zaporozhye.

On February 10, a meeting of the working group of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to work on the agreed bill on amending the constitution had to be canceled due to the divergence of positions of representatives of UDAR and Batkivshchyna parties. According to experts, the contradictions between the leaders of these factions, Yatsenyuk and Klitschko, worsened after the “Nuland-gate” (a scandal involving the publication of an intercepted telephone conversation between Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine), during which it became clear that the United States was relying only on Yatsenyuk, not trusting Klitschko.

That's when the results of Nuland's visit came out.

 And on the same day, the leader of the Right Sector, Dmitry Yarosh, announced on his page on one of the social networks that the Right Sector intends to resume action and is not obliged to “extend the truce with the authorities”: “Setting as a goal the victorious completion of the National Revolution , but realizing all the dangers that loom over the relatively independent state of Ukraine, the Right Sector agreed to a truce. We offered both the opposition and those individual representatives of the current regime who have not lost the remnants of common sense, our own scenario for resolving the situation in the country,” however, according to him, most of the demands “were not sufficiently fulfilled.” Yarosh called on protesters to “prepare for nationwide mobilization with the prospect of further blocking of the government quarter.”

 Thus the situation continued to escalate.