2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine began in the final days of February, in the immediate wake of the Revolution of Dignity that removed President Viktor Yanukovych from power. What followed was not a single uprising but a cascade of protests, seizures, referendums, and armed insurgencies that unfolded across Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Odesa simultaneously. Behind many of these events stood Russian military and intelligence services, who supported the unrest from its earliest hours. The questions this documentary will answer are not simple: Who actually wanted to leave Ukraine? What did ordinary residents of Donetsk and Luhansk think when gunmen occupied their government buildings? How did cities like Kharkiv and Odesa pull back from the edge while others descended into armed conflict? And what were the real limits of Russian influence when it met the complexity of Ukrainian society?

• 2. What Ukrainians Actually Wanted

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  A poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from the 8th to the 18th of February 2014 found that overall, just 12% of those surveyed across Ukraine preferred unification with Russia. Even in Crimea, where support was highest, 41% favoured union with Russia, meaning a majority did not. In Donetsk Oblast the figure was 33.2%, in Luhansk Oblast 24.1%, and in Odesa Oblast 24.0%.

  A follow-up KIIS poll in April, after Crimea had already been annexed, surveyed the remaining southern and eastern oblasts and found majority opposition to secession in every single one. In Luhansk Oblast, 51.9% opposed secession. In Donetsk Oblast, 52.2% opposed it. Opposition was far higher elsewhere: 78.8% in Odesa Oblast, 84.1% in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and 85.4% in Mykolaiv Oblast.

  A separate poll from the Donetsk Institute of Social Research and Policy Analysis found that just over a third of Donetsk residents identified primarily as "citizens of Ukraine." More preferred the labels "Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine" or "residents of Donbas." Yet 66% of those polled in Donetsk still supported remaining in a unified Ukraine. A second poll conducted from the 26th to the 29th of March showed that 77% condemned the takeover of administrative buildings.

  An International Republican Institute poll from the 14th to the 26th of March found that only 4% of respondents in eastern Ukraine felt that Russian-speakers were "definitely" under pressure. Only 2% of southerners and 4% of easterners supported separatism. A comprehensive Pew Research Centre poll released on the 8th of May found that 70% of Easterners polled said they wanted Ukraine to remain united.

• 3. Russia's Hand in the Protests

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  Historian William Jay Risch identified a deliberate campaign of rumours, spread through local elites and Russian state media in Donbas, aimed at undermining the new Ukrainian government. Kremlin advisers Vladislav Surkov and Sergey Glazyev were directly named as organizers of some pro-Russian protests.

  Ukraine's police and border guards denied entry to more than 8,200 Russians between the 4th and the 25th of March 2014. On the 27th of March, National Security and Defence Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy stated that between 500 and 700 Russians were being denied entry daily. Donetsk Oblast governor Serhiy Taruta said that rallies in Donetsk included ex-convicts and others who had traveled from Crimea.

  According to local media, 2,000 Russians were brought by bus, with Russian number plates, to Kharkiv to take part in the storming of the regional administration building on the 1st of March. Russian activist organizations confirmed they sent people to "peacefully protest" in Kharkiv. The leader of the extremist Eurasian Youth Union, Oleg Bakhtiyarov, was arrested for recruiting rioters at $500 each to assist in the storming of government buildings.

  On the 12th of April, a group of masked militants formed in Crimea and led by former Russian security services officer Igor Girkin captured the executive committee, the police department, and the SBU office in Sloviansk. As political scientist Taras Kuzio wrote, "Russia transformed protestors in the Donbas into armed insurgents; this was never an organic process."

• 4. Crimea's Annexation

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  Following the removal of Yanukovych on the 22nd of February 2014, protests and counter-protests erupted across Crimea. Beginning on the 26th of February, unidentified militants gradually took control of the Crimean Peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently confirmed that these were Russian troops.

  A referendum on joining the Russian Federation was held, reporting an official turnout of 83% and a 96% affirmative vote. The European Union, the United States, Ukraine, Crimean Tatar officials, and the United Nations General Assembly all condemned the vote as a violation of the Ukrainian constitution and international law. On the 17th of March, the Crimean Parliament declared independence from Ukraine. On the 18th of March, Russia and Crimea signed a treaty of accession. On the 21st of March, the accession treaty was ratified, marked by a 30-gun salute under an executive order of the Russian President.

  The UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution by 100 to 11 votes declaring the referendum invalid and the incorporation of Crimea into Russia illegal. Around 3,000 people had fled Crimea by the 1st of April, and 80% of them were Crimean Tatars. By the 20th of May, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that about 10,000 people had been displaced, primarily Crimean Tatars. OSCE teams assisted those who resettled in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and the Chernivtsi Oblast.

• 5. The Donbas Insurgency

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  Pro-Russian protesters occupied the Donetsk regional state administration building from the 1st to the 6th of March, before the Security Service of Ukraine removed them. On the 6th of April, a group of 1,000 protesters broke from a rally and stormed the building again, raising a Russian flag as those outside chanted "Russia, Russia." The separatist group Donetsk Republic, which had been banned in Ukraine since 2007, announced that a referendum on joining Russia would take place no later than the 11th of May 2014.

  Vitaly Yarema said that Russian Special Forces units, including the 45th Parachute Guards Regiment usually stationed near Moscow, were operating in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. By the 16th of April the number of Russian special forces troops was estimated at 450. The Geneva Statement of the 17th of April did not end the building occupations. A truce declared for Easter Sunday was broken by an attack on a separatist checkpoint in Sloviansk.

  The self-proclaimed separatist mayor of Sloviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, declared in response to Ukrainian probing attacks on the 24th of April, "We will make Stalingrad out of this town." Separatists in Sloviansk detained seven international OSCE military monitors, a bus driver, and five Ukrainian soldiers. The disputed referendum on the status of Donetsk Oblast was held on the 11th of May. Representatives of the Donetsk People's Republic claimed 89% voted in favour of self-rule with 75% turnout. OSCE monitors did not observe the vote, deeming the situation "volatile."

  A battle broke out on the 26th of May between separatist insurgents holding Donetsk International Airport and Ukrainian government forces. Around fifty insurgents were killed. Chechen paramilitaries, along with others from Russia, fought Ukrainian forces in that battle. As part of President Petro Poroshenko's fifteen-point peace plan, a frequently broken ceasefire ran from the 20th of June until the 30th. Heavy fighting continued until the signing of the Minsk Protocol in early September, which established a ceasefire.

• 6. Kharkiv Holds Its Ground

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  Unrest first reached Kharkiv city on the 22nd of February 2014, when Euromaidan protesters occupied the regional state administration building. Several thousand pro-Ukrainian protesters attempted that same day to topple a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Freedom Square; taxi drivers defended the monument, injuring several protesters. By the next day, thousands of pro-Russian protesters had gathered to protect the statue.

  On the 1st of March, pro-Russian activists stormed the RSA building, raised the Russian flag, and assaulted Euromaidan activists. Police regained control by that same evening. Two people were killed on the 15th of March in a shootout between Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russian activists. On the 16th of March, pro-Russian activists broke into a Ukrainian cultural centre, removed books written in Ukrainian, and burned them on the street.

  Pro-Russian protesters stormed the RSA building again on the 6th of April and on the 7th of April declared the "Kharkiv People's Republic." Doubts about the local character of the occupation arose when protesters initially stormed an opera and ballet theatre, mistaking it for city hall. Ukrainian special forces retook the RSA building by the 8th of April, arresting seventy protesters.

  Kharkiv mayor Hennadiy Kernes was shot in the back while cycling on the 28th of April 2014. He was described as in "grave, but stable" condition and later recovered. Former Kharkiv Oblast governor Mykhailo Dobkin said, "You want to know my opinion, they were shooting not at Kernes, but at Kharkiv." Kernes returned to the city on the 16th of June after receiving medical treatment in Israel.

  At a large rally on the 28th of September, a crowd that reached 5,000 people pulled down the Lenin statue in Freedom Square at 22:40, shortly after oblast governor Ihor Baluta signed an order to dismantle it. From early November to mid-December, Kharkiv was struck by seven non-lethal bomb blasts. SBU investigator Vasyliy Vovk concluded that Russian covert forces were behind the attacks. By late June, the chief of the Kharkiv Oblast branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that about 200 police officers had been fired since March for violations, many with "separatist views," and that 314 active separatists had been arrested in Kharkiv since the 6th of April.

• 7. Odesa: Fire and Aftermath

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  Demonstrations began in Odesa Oblast on the 1st of March. Police reported 5,000 participants in a pro-Russian demonstration in the city that day. On the 3rd of March, 200-500 demonstrators attempted to seize the Odesa Regional State Administration building and demanded a referendum on an "Odesa Autonomous Republic."

  On the 2nd of May, a rally of about 2,000 pro-government demonstrators was attacked by about 300 anti-Maidan militants with batons and helmets. Both sides clashed in the streets of central Odesa, building barricades and throwing petrol bombs. The anti-Maidan protesters retreated to the Trade Unions House, where militants on the roof shot at and threw rocks and petrol bombs at protesters below. The building caught fire. In total, 43 people died during the clashes. Thirty-one died while trapped in the burning building. Police said at least three were shot dead.

  On the 4th of May, the Internal Affairs Ministry office in Odesa was attacked by pro-Russian protesters demanding the release of those arrested. Police complied, freeing 67 of those arrested. Odesa city mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov told OSCE monitors on the 23rd of July that the "underlying tensions" of the 2nd of May clashes remained.

  Odesa was struck by six bomb blasts in December 2014, one of which killed one person. Internal Affairs Ministry advisor Zorian Shkiryak said on the 25th of December that Odesa and Kharkiv had become "cities which are being used to escalate tensions" in Ukraine, and that their "geographic position" had made them targets.

• 8. Media, Narrative, Language

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  Russian and Ukrainian sources differed sharply in how they described the same events. Armed militants who occupied government buildings in Donetsk Oblast were labelled "separatists" and "terrorists" by the Ukrainian government and Western media. Russian media and officials called the same people "supporters of federalization." Russian media and the militants themselves called the transitional government in Kyiv "nationalist" and "fascist."

  In Ukrainian media, the derogatory term "Colorado beetle" was applied to pro-Russian demonstrators and militants, in reference to the Ribbon of St. George they wore. Russian media coined the term "Russian Spring" for the wave of unrest, a deliberate echo of both the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Arab Spring of 2010-2011.

  Journalists covering the events faced direct violence. On the 10th of April, protesters outside the Donetsk RSA attacked Belarusian journalists for speaking Belarusian rather than Russian. Ukrainian journalists were forced to speak Russian to avoid angering pro-Russian protesters. On the 12th of April, 150 people outside the police station in Sloviansk told journalists to "go back to Kyiv." An unknown man set the car of the editor-in-chief of News of Donbas ablaze after the editor received anonymous threats. Separatists torched the offices of newspaper Provintsia in Kostiantynivka on the 23rd of April, having previously labelled the staff members of the "Right Sector movement."

  Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist with Vice News, was captured in Sloviansk and released after four days. British journalist Graham Phillips was taken captive by both separatists and the Ukrainian army. Evgenii Gapich, a photographer for the Reporter newspaper from Ivano-Frankivsk, disappeared in Horlivka and was allegedly held in detention in Sloviansk. A Human Rights Watch report also criticized the Ukrainian government for "the serial arrests of Russian journalists in Ukraine."