MAIDAN REVOLUTION
The Maidan Revolution, also known as the Revolution of Dignity, took place in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2013-2014. The revolution began on 21 November 2013, when Ukraine's Kremlin-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, suspended talks on an association agreement with the European Union. Hundreds of protesters gathered in Ukraine's central Independence Square, known as the Maidan. The demonstrators numbered in the tens of thousands, and the Maidan was transformed into a sprawling tented protest camp with huge barricades that remained manned throughout the deep winter.Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity left 108 civilian protesters and 13 police officers dead. Most of the protesters were shot by the police. Two others died when riot police set fire to the Trade Unions Building, which served as the Maidan headquarters. Another protester and a journalist were killed by titushky (government loyalists). The five police officers died of bullet wounds.
The Maidan protests set off a tumultuous chain of events that led to Russia's seizure of the strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March 2014, Ukraine's return to the 2004 constitution, and the start of a pro-Moscow insurgency in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region that led to the 2014 Russian-Ukrainian war.