Five years ago, on November 21, 2014, Ukrainians observed a new holiday – the anniversary of the start of the Euro-Maidan protests that led to the ouster of the country’s former Kremlin-backed regime.
The decree (No. 872/2014) marking November 13, 2013, as the “Day of Dignity and Freedom,” declared the holiday an annual commemoration. On that day, several hundred people – who were disappointed by then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s rejection of a landmark deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia – met spontaneously on Independence Square in Kyiv.