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Of Iron & Rust
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The Maidan Revolution began on November 21, 2013, when Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych abruptly suspended talks on an European Union association agreement, opting for closer ties with Moscow. That night, protesters gathered in Kyiv's Independence Square-Maidan-to oppose the decision. A violent police crackdown soon escalated the demonstrations, drawing tens of thousands and transforming the square into a winter-long protest camp fortified with barricades. On February 18, 2014, clashes erupted as protesters marched on parliament, and riot police pened fire, killing around 100 people in a brutal climax that shocked the nation. Yanukovych was impeached and fled to Russia.
The revolution set off a tumultuous chain of events that saw Russia seize the strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March 2014 and triggered the start of a pro-Moscow uprising in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The conflict splintered the country, claiming over 14,000 lives by the time of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.