Over the last few months, Ukraine, a country located in eastern Europe, has been in political unrest and at the brink of civil war.
The protests started in late November when the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, refused to sign a European pact at a summit, which he had planned to sign, in favor of trying to have closer ties with Russia. Within a week, many citizens called for the president’s resignation, believing it to be not a demand, but the will of the people.
Throughout early December, negotiations began with Ukraine under a lot of pressure from both Europe and Russia. Europe wanted them to sign the pact, while Russia did not. Throughout these negotiations, protesters remained in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Just as the parties were coming to an agreement, Yanukovych took four sick days off from work. Europe believed this was to stall the negotiations, as Yanukovych was unhappy with them. This caused Europe to cut communication for a small amount of time.
For about a month, everything was at somewhat of a stalemate. This changed in mid-January when the protests finally got violent. Three men died on Jan. 22: two by bullet wounds and one by falling to his death, which ended the truce that had been in effect between the protesters and the government security forces.
Violent events sparked the protests, which many believed to be coming to a close. At one point these newly fueled protests brought the country to the brink of civil war, which has yet to break out.
On Feb. 21, the protesters and Yanukovych agreed to form a new government and hold an early election. This was following the most violent week the protests has seen, leaving many dead and hundreds more wounded, signifying the worst violence the country has seen since it became independent in 1991. A few hours after the signing, Parliament heavily cut the president’s power by reverting to their 2004 constitution. Yanukovych quickly saw himself losing more and more followers.
Neither of the parties were completely happy with the agreement, as it did not remove Yanukovych from power, although the protesters are still calling for it. Several Russians involved completely refused to sign the agreement, even though the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that this did not mean they were not interested in further compromise.
The protesters are still upset over the failure of the original deal with Europe and the overall corruption of Ukraine and the lack of democratic rights and its failing economy, even though this agreement to reconstruct the government is a definite win for them.
Although it seems like this conflict may be finally dying down, the U.S. will keep an eye out to make sure that both parties stay true to their agreements, with the threat of taking action themselves if the parties do not.