Kyiv’s central square, the Maidan, was the site of two revolutions, and its name has become a kind of universal shorthand for a popular uprising. The first revolution, in 2004, brought to power Viktor Yushchenko, who promised European-style reforms but ended up presiding over a feckless administration. Disaffection with his corrupt successor, Viktor Yanukovych, led to the second revolution, starting in 2013, in which more than a hundred protesters were killed. The Maidan is also the site of the annual celebrations of the country’s Independence Day – the anniversary of the day, August 24, 1991, that Ukraine formalized its statehood after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This year, on August 24th at nine in the morning, more than a thousand children formed a line that led up the street where, five years ago, scores of demonstrators were fired on by snipers. The children, dressed in white, clutched yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags and bouquets of daisies.
Ukraine-U.S. Relations
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with his wife Olena take part in the March of Dignity to celebrate the 28th anniversary of Ukraine's independence in Kyiv on August 24, 2019.
