Kyiv and the quest for independence
The Orange Revolution of 2004 and 2005 was a revolution for independence. Not because Ukraine wasn’t an independent state, it was. But because the population was alarmed by reports of election interference during the election between the pro-Europe candidate Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych. After a revote, on 10 January 2005, the Election Commission officially declared Yushchenko the winner of the presidential election. He would remain president of Ukraine for 10 years.
In 2010 Viktor Yanukovych won the election of that year in his second attempt to become president. The Orange Revolution was later overshadowed by ‘Maidan’ in 2013 and 2014 when the people took to the street again after President Viktor Yanukovych suddenly decided not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement.
I remember the 2016 Dutch referendum on the Association Agreement very well. I voted in favour of it. Only 32,28% of Dutch voters bothered to vote. 61% voted against the Agreement, partly due to Russian interference. Michiel van Hulten, former chairman of the PvdA, and publicist Joshua Livestro led the campaign in favour of the agreement: They would later state: “No one realized that we were on the front line of an information war.”
Further reading: Sandworm A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers, by Andy Greenberg,
I arrived in Kyiv very early in the morning. My hotel was practically on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, so I got off the metro at Khreshchatyk. The first thing I noticed was a giant sea of blue and yellow flags on Maidan. The square was still empty except for one girl sitting on a corner next to the flags, headphones on, and crying. With lack of sleep because of the night train, I was fighting to hold back my own tears.
Among the fallen soldiers are many from the volunteer unit International Legion. Jonathan Sheng-Guang Tseng left Taiwan to fight for Ukraine. His decision has to be seen in the context of the tensions between China and Taiwan. He must have recognised the similarities between Taiwan and Ukraine. He was only 25 when he was killed in action. Likewise the Georgian National Legion has been fighting on the side of Ukraine since in the war in Donbas.
It was too early to check into my hotel so I just dropped off my bag and started exploring Kyiv on foot. The old city is built on a hill, but nothing remains of the old medieval street plan. Roads are wide and long. When the capital of Ukraine was moved to Kyiv in 1934 the Soviet government carried out a ‘reconstruction’ of the historical center of the capital. St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, dating back to the 12th century, was demolished between 1935 and 1937. In 1941 Stalin’s Red Army mined the city center and detonated these when the Wehrmacht marched into the city. One square kilometre around Khreshchatyk street was completely destroyed. The city center was rebuild in Neoclassical Stalinist architectural style.
One building the Soviets didn’t demolish is the Saint Sophia Cathedral. The cathedral was most likely founded in 1011 by Vladimir the Great.
Mykhailivska Square
This square in central Kyiv is now a permanent destroyed Russian military equipment exhibition, but on Ukrainian Railway Day a shelled train carriage was put on display. On this cold February morning the square was mostly devoid of people.
Below the remains of an OTR-21 Tochka (NATO name: SS-21 Scarab) missile. Being a Soviet missile, both Russia and Ukraine have this missile in their arsenal.
The SS-21 on Russian launch vehicles.
Below the rebuilt St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. The cathedral reopened in 1999.
View from Mykhailivska Square before the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery was demolished by the Soviets. The photo was made in the early 1900s.
What was started in 2004 with the Orange Revolution continues to this day. As long as Russia continues the war against Ukraine, true independence cannot be celebrated. Currently Kyiv is in a battle for survival, no matter how far away the war front is. Its wounds are mostly invisible. 80% of the population of Ukraine have a close relative who has been wounded or killed, and an estimated 12 million Ukrainians are suffering from war trauma. Invisible Wounds.
ORCS MUST DIE, a reference to J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Orcs were the primary soldiers of both Dark Lords' armies: Morgoth and Sauron. Dehumanization is a prerequisite for killing.
Kyiv has some very good lunchrooms. I had a glass of very good Ukrainian wine, and Kyiv borsch served with pampushka stuffed with meat (260 UAH) at Glek (Глек), 6 Velyka Zhytomyrska Street. The borsch is made with porcini mushrooms, smoked pear, red Carpathian beans.
Poster for Azov, the Azov Battalion was founded in 2014 as a volunteer unit in reaction to the Russian backed forces in Donbas. It was formally incorporated into the National Guard just half a year later and is now know as the Azov Regiment. The Azov Movement was created by the military unit and has drawn attention because of its ties with far-right movements. Putin has used Azov as a justification for his special operation to de-nazify Ukraine. The Azov Regiment is now considered to be largely depoliticised.
Entrance to a Kyiv army surplus store. You are meant to use this Russian military jacket as a doormat. I visited quite a lot of army surplus stores out of personal interest. The official uniform has a MM-14 camouflage pattern and is easy to recognise.
In the evening I had dinner in Pervak. I ended up ordering a few dishes, one dish was chicken Kyiv, around a big glass of beer. They served horseradish shots alongside the beer. The place was not busy.
New city marketing slogan: Kyiv is waiting for you after the victory! I was just thinking: “Why wait?”
When I arrived in Kyiv I bought a return ticket leaving at 6:19 in the morning. Soon I discovered that would be a problem considering curfew ended at 5 am in the morning. It could be enough time to reach Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in time from my hotel, but I had no idea how overwhelmed the taxi system would be just after curfew. I decided I couldn’t risk missing my train, and therefore my flight in Kraków, so prepared for leaving my hotelroom in the evening to spend the whole night at the railway station. This wasn’t ideal and I swooped up the last seat/bed in a train leaving at 02:57 am in the morning. This would cut my waiting time in a cold and dark railway station by 3,5 hours.
I spent my last day in Kyiv taking the metro to the metro end stations and walking the streets of central Kyiv.
Lisova terminus station of the Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line.
Donation box for the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade next to a heavily damaged vehicle of the unit. They need a new car to keep fighting. In the background: Azovstal. Free Mariupol Defenders. The Azovstal Iron and Steel Works was the last holdout during the Siege of Mariupol in March 2022. About 1500 Azovstal defenders are still captured by the Russians.
Besarabsky Market - 1912
The landscape between Kyiv and Lviv from my train window.
Arriving back in Lviv
There are trains running between Lviv and Poland but I couldn’t buy a ticket using my app. So I booked another bus, this time directly to Kraków. The bus left at 00:40 am, so I had to be at the bus station before curfew. We drove all night and spent three hours at the Ukrainian-Polish border. This time customs was more strict and my bag was searched for military stuff. When the customs officer discovered my Putin toilet paper I bought as a souvenir, she smiled and the search was over.
“ПТН ПНХ”
