00:00 "A very important day here in Ukraine, a day where each Ukrainian will remember, if not
00:05 commemorate this day.
00:07 Why will we not see big commemorations?
00:10 Well, simply because under martial law we cannot see those kinds of gatherings for security
00:16 reasons once again.
00:17 But it's a very important day because it marks the day during which the Ukrainian population
00:23 rose against the pro-Russian government because the Yanukovych government back then, remember,
00:29 had decided to withdraw from the negotiations for the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement,
00:36 which was an economic agreement, and instead chose to new itself from Russia, which is
00:42 something that Ukrainians took to the streets about.
00:45 They came here on the 21st of November 2013 following a post from a journalist who said,
00:52 "Let's all meet at 10.30 on Maidan Square."
00:54 And this is where it all started.
00:56 A few hundred people had gathered to express their discontent towards the government, and
01:01 the government responded in the coming days, in the coming weeks, by violence.
01:05 And it's really that violence and that repression that prompted tens of thousands, hundreds
01:11 of thousands of people to take to the streets, not just here in Kiev, but also in Lviv, also
01:16 in Kharkiv, to show their discontent with their own government.
01:19 And ultimately, in February 2014, when it led to the revolution of dignity, it led to
01:27 further Maidan protests, and ultimately Yanukovych fled to Russia.
01:32 So this is where it all started, because this was used as a pretext for Russia to invade
01:37 Ukraine, and the blood that was shed here in Maidan by 108 people who died during those
01:43 protests is now sadly being marched by the blood of thousands who are currently fighting
01:47 on the front line to defend the independence of their country.
