EuroMaidan Revolution
James Brooke: Don’t underestimate Ukraine!
\"Maidan\" (name given by Ukrainian anti-government protesters to Independence square in Kiev, their main rally point) self-defence troops rally in Kiev on January 29, 2014, marking the 96th anniversary of a battle near the small city of Kruty. 300 students, cadets and schoolboys were killed during combat with the regular Red Army on January 29, 1918, to protect the new-born Ukraine's People Republic against Bolshevik aggression. Ukraine's first post-independence president on January 29, 2014 warned that the country was on the brink of civil war as parliament struggled to find an agreement on granting an amnesty to protesters arrested in the crisis. AFP PHOTO / GENYA SAVILOV
In the late 1940s, the mortality rate for Soviet troops fighting Ukrainian insurgents in Western Ukraine was higher than the mortality rate for Soviet troops fighting in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
This little known fact, long suppressed by Soviet censors, helps to explain why, after two months of harsh winter weather, Ukrainians are still manning barricades against their government.
Beneath the amiable, and sometimes jovial, exterior of many Ukrainians is a hidden self-discipline, nerves of steel, and an impressive ability to cooperate under duress for a common cause.
