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2024 Kiev Riots (Combined's Scenario) is under construction. Therefore, please excuse its informal appearance while it is being worked on. We hope to have it completed as soon as possible. Thank you.
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| 2024 Kiev Riots | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Combined's Scenario | |||||||
 (Top Image) Protesters rise Ukrainian flag in front of burning flame (Bottom Left) A protester shoots at riot police | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ukrainian Government:
|
~Various groups | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Petro Poroshenko Yuriy Allerov |
~Various leaders | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Law Enforcement: 5,700 from National Guard |
1.3 million protesters 20,500 "self-defense sotnia" | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| -Killed: 2,340 |
-Killed: 8,400 - 10,100 | ||||||
| Over 570,000 of the protesters that participated came from around the country to the city where most of the demonstrations were taking place. Yes, it's supposed to be this violent. | |||||||
The 2024 Kiev Riots was a series of violent protests that took place in Ukraine's capital over a 2 month, 14 day period. Many historians credit the cause of the protests to be the re-election of both Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ever after the European Union's dissolution in 2020, Poroshenko had made warmer relations with the Russians and rumors spread of him declaring Crimea, Russian territory. The overall death and destruction has resulted in one of the most deadliest riots in modern history.
Background[]
European Union Dissolution[]
Rumors about the dissolution of the EU had begun ever since Great Britain officially left in late March, 2019. Another blow to the EU was in late 2018 when Greece held a similar referendum, and resulted in most of the people wanting to leave due to their poor economy; they officially left in mid-2019. The final nail in the coffin was in early 2019 when German Chancellor, Angela Merkel called for a referendum in her country to see if the people wanted to stay in the EU; in which she expected that the country would overwhelmingly want to stay. What happened was very similarly to the British referendum, voters overwhelmingly instead voted to leave the European Union immediately, with a 57-43 percent difference. Soon after the referendum, Merkel resigned and her Vice-Chancellor (Sigmar Gabriel) took over as acting-Chancellor and declared that he would begin talks to leave the European Union immediately.
Germany officially left the EU in late November, 2019. After that EU leaders called an emergency meeting at their headquarters in Brussels to discuss the decline in membership and disapproval of the union. After the meeting, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk resigned citing a "lack of leadership". President of the European Commission, Jean-Calaude Junker took command. The first sign of dissolution was a week after Tusk's resignation when Junker announced the ending of the Schengen Agreement in which let citizens travel without passports between EU countries. After the ending of the agreement, checkpoints began sprouting up across the continent. Over the next 3 weeks, many treaties that held the core of the union were suspiciously ended, which were the London/Paris Conferences, Treaty of Rome, Merger Treaty, Council Agreement on TREVI, Single European Act, Amsterdam Treaty, Maastricht Treaty (TEU), and the Treaty of Nice.
On August 17th, 2020, Acting-President Jean-Claude Junker announced that the Treaty of Lisbon (which founded the modern EU) would be terminated and would go into effect immediately. After the termination of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union officially ended with Europe being more divided than ever. Soon after the termination, many peaceful protests sprouted up in Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Stockholm, etc...
Warmer Relations[]
With the European Union disbanded, Russia's influence spread like wildfire across Eastern Europe once more. Soon after the dissolution many countries also feared suppression and possible invasion by Russia; Finland, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania signed economic union pacts with Russia. Almost 3 months after the dissolution, President Poroshenko announced that Ukraine would also be creating an economic union with Russia. Public approval for the union, was very low at about 27% approval rate. Poroshenko said during a press conference that the union would, "Bring our two countries together and make a more safer and peaceful Europe."
Two years after the creation of the economic union between Russia and Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin flew to Kiev to have the first meeting between the two leaders after the creation of the economic union. While Putin was visiting, peaceful protesters crowded the streets chanting, "We're not Russia!" After the meeting, it was announced that Ukraine and Russia would sign a Free Travel Pact in which people would be able to travel between the two countries freely. Many thought this would be the cause for major unrest, but surprisingly it didn't. It is believed that the reason why is because many thought that they would be able to elect somebody else in the next presidential election cycle that would rip up the new treaties.
Ukrainian Presidential Election[]
With the upcoming presidential election of 2024, many people believed that they could throw Poroshenko out due to term limits and the new president would repeal the new treaties signed with Putin. That wasn't the case. On November 11th, 2023 President Poroshenko officially disbanded the Verkhovna Rada's powers over elections; which in turn allowed the incumbent president to have unlimited term limits. Public approval for the president dropped to a low 13%, and any candidacy possible for Poroshenko would result in defeat.
On election day, February 20th, 2024, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had an almost 32% lead against Poroshenko. Before the results became official, Tymoshenko was arrested on charges of corruption and treason. Poroshenko declared, "As your president I have been charged with looking out for your best interest at heart. As of the arrest of Prime Minister Tymoshenko, I have suspended the vote for the presidential election. I know many will not understand, but it's the best decision for you." In anticipation for major protests against the results of the election, Poroshenko declared a "Shelter-In-Place" across Kiev, which barred anyone from leaving their homes. Public approval sank even lower to a mire 5% approval rating.
Russian Presidential Election[]
Similarly to the Ukrainian presidential election, many people disagreed with the many new close relations with Ukraine and thought they could remove Putin from power and put someone in place that would at least make the relationship between the two countries more formal. Still, it seemed that many were scared to run against the incumbent President, as his major challenger for the 2018 election, Alexei Navalny was killed by a supposed mugger in the days leading up to the election; many suspected that the crime was orchestrated by Putin to remain in power. The only opponents that would face Putin for this election was Communist Gennady Zyuganov and Liberal Democrat Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
On election day, March 20, 2024, as the polls predicted Putin came out with an almost 60 point lead against his opponents and was soon declared victor. Many believe that the election was faked, by ballot stuffing and voter suppression, and that if it was a normal election it was possible that Zhirinovsky. None of this was reported by Russian media, but was highly publicized by Western media causing an outcry for a recount by the Russian Government. President Putin put a statement saying, "This election was completely in truth, the people have spoken, and they want me."
The Riots[]
Early Protests[]
In the early days after the suspended presidential vote in Ukraine, people had already begun to gather in the capital as protest for the results. In first 3 days after the election, about
Early gathering of peaceful protests.
3,700 people had gathered in the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (English: Independence Square), as it is the most famous area in the city for protests. For the time in between the Ukrainian election and the Russian election, most of the protesting was peaceful and very non-violent with only some arrests.
3 days after the election, President Poroshenko lifted the "Shelter-in-Place" that was mandated across the city. Soon after that night, many begun gathering at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti. In the first night alone, about 570 people had gathered there, carrying national flags and posters calling for the release of Prime Minister Tymoshenko from prison, and for another election to take place.
A week after the protests began, the Verkhovna Rada attempted to pass legislation that would call for a new election, but was immediately stopped by President Poroshenko. This resulted in almost all members (an estimated 180 members) walked out of the parliament building in protest and joined other protesters. The walk out by law makers gathered much national and international attention by world media, which brought even more people to join the protests in Kiev. By the end of the second day after the walk out the protests grew from 600 to about 3,800 people. Still even as the protests grew larger, the events remained almost all very peaceful.
Unrest Begins[]
Early signs of civil unrest in the capital begun about 3 weeks after the walk out of the politicians from the parliament building. With almost 570,000 people gathered throughout the city, President Poroshenko sent in riot police to: "Contain and maintain the peace and safety of the people of Kiev from these supposed protesters of my victory in the election." Soon after Poroshenko's comments reached the media, more protesters began swarming the inner city, with a reported 1.2 million people in the days after his comments.
Riot police begin pushing protesters from the Independence Monument in central Kiev.
On April 3rd, 2024 riot police and security forces began pushing back protesters in the central areas of the city. This move was met with great resistance from the continuously angering crowd, with about 5 people reportedly throwing rocks at the police forces. The first reported injury was when a security force agent was hit in the leg with a brick, after that very small incident President Poroshenko ordered that security forces and riot police take: "...any means necessary to combat and dissipate these soldiers from hell."
On April 5th, Poroshenko sent in 200 members of the National Guard along with 500 members of the mercenary group, the Titushky. Soon the next day many began pushing back protesters much more forcefully, and taking almost 340 arrested in the first few days after. Protesters grew tired of the riot police violent force and began fighting back in huge numbers. On April 7th, a crowd of 700 people clashed with riot police, fighting them with rocks and bricks mostly. By April 10th, about 500 police members had been injured and 20 had been killed by their injuries. Soon after, this is when many of the most violent protests begun.
Yevropeis'ka Square incident[]
By June 3rd, the record number of protesters that had gathered in the city were about 127,500 people (with about 1 million people total having attended). With huge amounts of protesters gathering in the city, the police force was very constricted and stressed to it's limits, causing much tension between the police and the protesters.
On June 4th, the city riot commander ordered that police officers begin carrying weapons with them to disperse crowds and use for defense. On that day, in Yevropeis'ka Square a protester in the crowd threw a Molotov cocktail into the group of police that were attempting to push them back. The cocktail exploded, killing 10 of the officers while injuring 14 others. In response and against orders not to fire, 5 police officers fired their weapons into the very large crowd of people, killing 59 people and injuring 102.
Even as people in the crowd dispersed and ran away, many officers followed and continued to shoot them. Some of the protesters fought back with more Molotov cocktails, and guns of their own. The area around the square turned quickly into a war zone, with overturned cars set ablaze, and structures destroyed. In total on that day, 275 people were killed, with 150 of the protesters, and 115 officers being killed. Almost 1,500 people were injured also. The shooting caused much outrage across the world, yet no response by the president. This incident would cause other similar incidents to occur around the city over the next month.