People & Histories
November 2013 – February 2014

The Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan)

Protests over a shelved EU agreement grow into an uprising that topples President Yanukovych.

  • Euromaidan Revolution (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine) — Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (signed entries by subject specialists), Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2024)
  • The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History — Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton (2023)
  • The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (5th ed.) — Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press (2022)

Well established democracyidentity

On 21 November 2013, President Viktor Yanukovych’s government suddenly suspended preparations to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union. That evening a few thousand people, many of them students, gathered on Kyiv’s Maidan to protest.

  • Euromaidan Revolution (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine) — Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (signed entries by subject specialists), Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2024)
  • The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History — Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton (2023)
  • The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (5th ed.) — Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press (2022)
When riot police beat the students and the authorities later rushed through repressive laws, the protest became a mass movement. Its target was no longer just the EU deal but a ruling elite seen as corrupt and contemptuous of ordinary people. Hence the name Ukrainians gave it, the Revolution of Dignity.

The camp on the Maidan held through the winter. The confrontation turned deadly, above all on 18–20 February 2014. Over the whole protest more than 100 people were killed, most of them protesters, many by sniper fire; police officers were also among the dead. Ukrainians call the fallen protesters the “Heavenly Hundred”.

  • Euromaidan Revolution (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine) — Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (signed entries by subject specialists), Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2024)
  • The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History — Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton (2023)
  • The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (5th ed.) — Andrew Wilson, Yale University Press (2022)
On 21–22 February Yanukovych fled Kyiv and parliament removed him. Petro Poroshenko won the presidential election that May.

At the time, Ukrainians were divided. In February 2014, before the shootings, KIIS surveys found 40–44% supporting the protests, from 8% in the east to 80% in the west.

A decade later, opinion has consolidated. In 2025, 67% described the revolution as a popular protest for a pro-Western path, and in 2026 another poll found 60% calling it a fight for rights, freedom and a European choice.
The Russian state, by contrast, has always called it a “coup”.
Within days of Yanukovych’s flight, Russian troops were moving on Crimea.

How it's seen
How most Ukrainians see it now

A popular protest for a European, democratic future against a corrupt government. In 2025, 67% of Ukrainians saw it this way, and a majority did in every region.

How the Russian state sees it

A Western-backed coup carried out by "nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites".

Why it matters today

Ukraine

For most Ukrainians the Maidan was a popular stand for dignity, a European future and an end to corrupt rule, and its dead, the "Heavenly Hundred", are national martyrs. Calling it a "coup", as Russian media do, is a quick way to offend.