| Editor's Note: It has been indeed painful to watch Ukraine tear itself apart since last November when President Yanukovych rejected membership in the EU in favor of its historic, positive and more promising relationship Russia. But it's been unspeakably more painful for Ukrainians. Russia correctly described the bloody path taken by the opposition as "connivance by Western politicians and European structures" and their denial of the "aggressive actions" of radical factions within the protest movement. We've seen the same pattern of Western imperialism put to use in too many independent countries not to recognize it. In The End of Ukraine, an article also authored by Graham Phillips 5 days earlier, he wrote:
In this essay, the writer tells a heart-wrenching story of how "many uneducated, ideologically radicalised young Ukrainian men want to go to their own ‘hero’s grave’. And the way to a Euromaidan hero’s grave is only in attempting to kill, or killing, their own countrymen" and how "opposition leaders, such as Svoboda’s Oleg Tyagnibok, who, via rhetoric and tweets, sent followers into a war without ever actually joining them on the front-lines." -Les Blough, Editor Axis of Logic  In one of the wildest days in its history, even by new Ukrainian standards, Tymoshenko will be freed imminently, while the Ukrainian parliament have voted unanimously to return to the 2004 Constitution, limiting presidential powers, with Yanukovych agreeing to early elections – December. So, everything the opposition wanted for. Yet, now, no one wants it and the first speeches given on the Maidan stage were to reject the deal – signed by all three opposition leaders. Actually, ultra-right-wing Pravy Sector leader Dmytro Yaroshcame immediately out with: “The people’s revolution continues, and it will end with full removal from power.”
His calls for Yanukovych’s instant resignation, prosecution, arrests of ministers and Berkut, were enthusiastically chorused by those down on the desecrated Maidan. But the fact is, those on Maidan represent factions who could never come to power in a democratic election, so they have no interest in election. More, what happens if
Also today, ceremonies were held on Maidan for those killed (photo to left Duncan Crawford’s). With over 80 Ukrainian protesters dead in the 93-day struggle, and 16 police, that they gave their lives to bring forward a presidential election by a couple of months, and get the release of a Tymoshenko most feel ambiguous about at best, is hardly palatable. Those killed are already being hailed as ‘heroes of Ukraine‘, as reports show thevast majority of them came from Ukraine’s west.
As someone who has spent much of the last 4 years in Ukraine, it’s truly sad to see those men whose home country I have come to love perish. Those that were it not for Euromaidan, easy conversing would have been possible. I remember during Euro 2012, both in the east and the west of Ukraine, a country coming together. In a Kiev where now opposing forces have fought to kill, fraternal rapport between Ukrainians proud of their nation. On a human level, on a Ukrainian level, it’s terrible – but the worst thing you can do is call them heroes? Why? Because that simply makes more of these, many uneducated, ideologically radicalised young Ukrainian men want to go to their own ‘hero’s grave’. And the way to a Euromaidan hero’s grave is only in attempting to kill, or killing, their own countrymen.
Almost exactly a month ago, upon the death of Euromaidan protester Sergey Nigoyan, I put up a blog, provocatively entitled Good News – Terrorist Dead in Kiev. It proved to be, perhaps unsurprisingly, incredibly controversial, attracting scores of vitriolic comments against me. Of course the title was inflammatory, but I wanted to do more than incite anger, or in some cases fury. A culture of ‘hero death‘ is dangerous in the extreme – dangerous for those who see their eternal commemoration as a ‘slain hero’ as something more than that which they could achieve by staying alive. Dangerous for those they must attack in order to obtain this status. I wanted to challenge the idea. Yesterday, I amended the title of that blog to simply Terrorist Dead in Kiev. Good news and Ukraine are irreconcilable in these recent days of death, and I couldn’t let it stand as was. Yet, now, something equally hard to let pass is the Euromaidan death double standard. While the protesters’ deaths have been met with mass sympathy and tribute, the killing of Ukrainian police officers, some as young as 20, has been greeted with celebration by many -
In Nigoyan’s death, along with another activist at the time, Belarusian Michail Zhiznevsky, there was a chance for Ukraine to stop. ‘Good news’ would have been other young men who had come from across Ukraine to join in Euromaidan seeing that it was now serious, that the stakes had been raised to put their lives on the line. Whereas Nigoyan seemed to ally himself exclusively with Armenia until Euromaidan, those who have died in Kiev this week are unquestionably Ukrainian. With many of those killed hailing from the west of Ukraine, with its veneration of WWII collaboration, their political ideology was already highly questionable. In the surreal modern world we live in, you can easily find those killed on social networking sites and do a virtual tour through their lives up until the point that was no more. What you see is mostly apattern of young western Ukrainian men, with the greatest of respect many of whom do not seem academically inclined, going from normal lives to Euromaidan. Perhaps in the first case as misguided ideological activists, turning into terrorists fighting guerilla offensives, to highly-trained soldiers, with hours spent every day honing combat skills.
They went up against a Ukrainian police who used guns, just as they used guns. Yet, don’t believe for a moment that all these men were ‘picked off by snipers‘. Even before considering the compelling evidence that far-right groups were masquerading as Ukrainian policemen in a ‘dirty PR’ exercise. The Euromaidan fighters may be combat-trained, but they are entirely without the discipline of proper military, many of them going in with new-found weapons with such gung-ho that bullets fly in all directions.
If you support them, you can think of them as fallen soldiers on the right side. Yet, I believe those who have died were soldiers on the wrong side. At the worst, they were fighting for a party, Svoboda, under whom Ukraine would be a repressive, fascist state taking its
As for whose hands their blood is on, amid all the finger pointing at Yanukovych, what about those opposition leaders, such as Svoboda’s Oleg Tyagnibok, who, via rhetoric and tweets, sent followers into a war without ever actually joining them on the front-lines. And, as for these elections – if they don’t happen it will mean Ukraine has reverted to armed uprising to install its leaders. If they do, and the Maidaners don’t like the result, will they simply start up Euromaidan Part 2 even quicker next time with the experience of this? Is the future of Ukraine armed insurgency or democracy? Does Ukraine even have a future as a country given that not only have east and west, south even, moved further apart, but there is currently no opposition leader capable of reconciling them into a functioning country? Those who have died in Euromaidan now take their place in Ukraine’s past. But, it’s a real shame they decided the best way to serve their country was by going into an internecine war in which they well knew they may die, or cause death to others. I can say RIP, but can’t call them heroes. The real heroes of Ukraine will be those who succeed in making a positive, democratic future for the 45 million.
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