General information
First Active Year: 2014
Current Name: Maidan
Current Name full English: Maidan People's Council
Current Name full native language: Народне об'єднання "Майдан" / Narodne ob'yednannya "Maydan"
Original Name: Maidan
Original Name full English: Maidan People's Council
Original Name full native language: Народне об'єднання "Майдан" / Narodne ob'yednannya "Maydan"
Actor Chronology
This section contains information about (if applicable) group splinters, name changes, and alliances according to the UCDP definitions of these concepts.
UCDP has not recorded any Chronology Activities involving this group.
Conflict issues
Government of Ukraine - Maidan
Conflict Goal Issues: Maidan, alternatively known as Euromaidan, began as a protest movement which quickly formed an armed self-defense force and then became engaged in an armed conflict against the government of Ukraine until it successfully ousted the government in February 2014. Originally formed in opposition to the sudden abandonment of an association agreement with the European Union, the group was a loosely organized movement which included a range of actors across the political spectrum. Politicians like Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Vitali Klitschko, and the jailed Yulia Tymoschenko, among others, effectively functioned as leaders of the movement, rallying the protesters, and issuing demands, with Andrei Purubiy serving as commander of the self-defense force.
The earliest conflict goal issues located by the project date back to November and December 2013 when the movement first began to protest the abandonment of the EU agreement. Suggestions to hold early elections were floated and eventually the protests prompted a clampdown by the Ukrainian government. After protests were repressed forcefully by police, the movement gained more traction and grew in scope, demands that Yanukovych step down or be ousted were issued.
Possibly because of the short duration of the conflict, the Maidan movement remained remarkably consistent in their conflict goal issues for such a broad coalition. This was likely aided by a narrow focus on forcing the government to commit to the association agreement with the EU instead of wider range of issues which might otherwise have divided the movement. Indeed, the largest change that the movement underwent was that as repression of the movement grew more severe, so did the calls to oust the Yanukovych government and the willingness from the opposition leaders to unite.
Identifying the main issues for this group is made difficult by their brief existence. That said, changing foreign policy regarding the EU, in which signing the associational agreement is seen as the first step to the European path. Klitschko, commenting in an interview on 12 December, stated, “Today, we can see progress in those states that opted for the European path. They have high standards of living, a better infrastructure, and they respect civil rights. This is the only path for us”. The EU agreement was essential to the movement, so much so that the movement is interchangeably referred to as Maidan and Euro-Maidan (with other variations). Hence, even with the low number of issues, it can still be identified as the group’s main conflict goal issue.
Conflict Dynamics Issues: During its first year, Maidan raised several conflict dynamics issues. Among the issues coded for this group are atrocities and abuses by state police and various forms of increased foreign involvement like requesting sanctions to be place on key government officials, election monitoring and for foreign actors like the German government to mediate the conflict. Additionally, a key issue raised early in the movement was requesting the release of the former Prime minister Yulia Tymoschenko who was convicted for abuse of power, a verdict that was widely regarded as political persecution and a tactic by the Yanukovych government to remove the leading opposition figure.
Maidan underwent little to no change in regard to the raised conflict dynamics issues. Most conflict dynamics issues arose from the government’s violent response to the protests in the early stages of the conflict and persisted until the movement ousted Yanukovych Due to the low number of conflict dynamics issues and the short duration of the conflict, it has not been possible to identify a main issue for the conflict dynamics category.
Conflict Resolution Issues: Very few conflict resolution issues were located and coded by the project. Only three were located, all of which were expressed in January or February 2014. There issues were: demands for accountability/investigation in the form of a independent commission, calls for negotiations and the structure of negotiations. The project has not been able to identify a main conflict resolution issue due to the low number of stated issues in this category.
Type of conflict issues: *Conflict Goal Issues: * Civil rights, Constitutional issues, CPS: Other/undefined system, Economic reforms, Foreign policy reform, Hold elections, Oust full executive, Oust head of the executive, Oust local executive, Oust parliament, Public services, Reform parliament
*Conflict Dynamics Issues: * Atrocities and abuses, IFI: Foreign mediator, IFI: International court/tribunal/investigation, IFI: International monitoring, IFI: Sanctions, IFI: Use of foreign influence, Release of prisoners
*Conflict Resolution Issues: * Accountability/prosecution/investigation, Call for negotiations, Structure of negotiations
Annual information
This section contains annual information systematically collected by the UCDP.
2014
Actor Active in Dyad(s):
Government of Ukraine - Maidan
Group Archive
This section contains annual information no longer systematically collected by the UCDP.
2014 Group Archive
Government of Ukraine - Maidan
Comment on Name: Maidan Peoples Council was the official name of the group, with "Maidan Self-Defence Forces" and later "Maidan Unified Revolutionary Army" as the name of the armed forces.
In Western media, the most common name used for the group is Euromaidan, from the official name of the first and most prominent action, the three-months long, 500,000 people strong protests in Kiev, known in Ukrainian as Evromaydan (Eurosquare). Other actions, such as Avtomaydan (Car Maidan), and Kybermaydan (Cyber Maidan), and Evromaydan PR (public support and PR gathering) existed.
Troop Size: 12,000 - 500,000
Comment on Troop Size: Maidan reports 12,000 troops as the size of the Self-Defense Group. 500,000 was the highest participation level at the Kiev protests.
