Since when Is Maidan a Symbol of Massacre for the EU?

The word “Maidan people” crept into the Russian and then the world media from the light hand of the Nightingale-Skabei tribe. The word-stamp was skillfully tied to Ukraine, first to modern, then to Ukraine in general. There is the state in the world – the land of Chernobyl, the land of the Maidan. Stupid. Unsuccessful. Bloody. Lazy. Then think for yourself.

The stamp is not surprising when it comes from the enemy. Because what to expect from the creators of “bloody boys” in Donbas? But when the dirt is not removed, it spreads. Through the efforts of Russian TV landfills, the sacred history of Maidan and the people of Ukraine, who created and supported it, is being repainted in a mess, if not bloody madness.

Maidan, as the personification of bloody events that destroy a peaceful and happy state, was recently vividly described in a lengthy TV interview by the Head of the neighbouring country in the north. The creators of this horror were the “Maidan people” – you and I, Ukrainians. Knowing in advance that support for the election should not be expected, the leader threatened that he would not allow the same Maidan activists in Belarus to repeat Maidan.

There is nothing strange here either. Don’t we know how power at all levels has been re-elected in Belarus for a quarter of a century? How did opposition politicians disappear there, were dissidents forced to leave? Did we not see the real verdict of the Belarusians on Sunday, 17 August, in thousands of demonstrations in the capital and dozens of other cities and villages?

But we are surprised when the Kremlin-Minsk vocabulary is used by the European elite. When the Revolution of Dignity, known to the whole world as Maidan, becomes a symbol of misery and destruction.

This is exactly what the French, German and Italian media are reporting now when they are worried about the situation in Belarus.

Here is the summary of the telephone conversation between Presidents Macron and Putin: Paris is allegedly being asked not to allow the Maidan to be repeated. But Reuters quotes EU President Charles Michel: “The Ukrainian experience is very important. Nobody wants to repeat what happened in Ukraine. The European Union is not interested in a new ‘Maidan’ that will lead to chaos in Belarus.”

How to understand this, dear European politicians?

“Nobody” wants to see a people, a civil society that does not tolerate lawlessness. Don’t want to see hundreds of thousands of people demanding respect for their choice on an honest and fair path of development?

Could “no one” want to see the killers in police uniforms who, on the instructions of the authorities, shoot peaceful protesters? Or maybe he does not want to see the Russian armed forces capturing the Crimean Peninsula and launching “Grad” in the Donbas, shooting down a peaceful MH17?

Then speak more clearly, gentlemen EU leaders! You are listened to and read not only in Moscow. Your position is a guide for the 520 million citizens of the European Union, and the rest of the world is not indifferent to it.

The Maidan, which you mention so badly, is the highest manifestation of civic responsibility and human dignity. Both its victims and we, its prominent and unknown participants, stand on it and will defend it. By the way, the Maidan reminded the citizens of united Europe about the values ​​and the price they have to pay for them.

Maidan is the starting point of real Ukraine. And maybe a new, better Europe.

Andriy Veselovsky, National Institute for Strategic Studies