Euromaidan revolution five years on
EU Council President Tusk has recalled in Kiev the pro-European demonstrations of five years ago. Together with President Poroshenko he commemorated the more than 100 people who lost their lives in the bloody fighting on Maidan Square in February 2014. On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the protests, commentators from Eastern Europe take a rather somber look back.
A peaceful solution stood no chance
A compromise between the supporters of the Euromaidan and their opponents wasn't possible, explains journalist Pavlo Kasarin in Ukrayinska Pravda:
“This was a battle between two ideological systems. Irreconcilable ideological systems. Those who supported the protests and those who dreamed of their dissolution had too little in common. They had the same passports, but that's where the similarities ended. They had contrasting takes on the past and dreamed of entirely different futures. For those on the one side Europe was the 'promised land', for the others it was a kingdom of soulless corruption. For the one side Russia was a prison of nations and for the other it was a new, improved USSR.”
Wrong on the right and on the left
Radio Kommersant FM explains how people of all political stripes in Russia were mistaken about Ukraine:
“The Russian liberals were wrong when they declared Ukraine a sort of 'beautiful Russia of the future'. That was an attempt to justify the Kiev leaders' often dumb decisions. And it also reflected the desire to view the normal inhabitants of post-Soviet territories as aware citizens, and corrupt politicians as a new type of statesman. But the conservatives were no less wrong. They thought Ukraine would break up into several sections, some of which would happily become part of Russia. And that the self-declared republics could become a secret 'Russian world' - and not a territory that is controlled by Russian money and dubious characters.”
And the winner is: Vladimir Putin
Lidové noviny takes stock of the Euromaidan revolution and the Ukraine crisis:
“Looking back at the last five years one has to concede that Putin has won. Not because his 'green men' occupy Crimea. Nor because he supports the Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. No: his victory has to do with the West's new mindset. Who in the West still has Ukraine on their agenda? True, Donald Tusk is due to speak in Kiev today. But more as a Pole with an instinct for caution regarding Russia than as a leader of the EU who defends its values.”