Price of freedom

On February 18, 2014, as a result of clashes on the Maidan, the first dead appeared

That day turned out to be sunny and crowded: the column from the Maidan, which was supposed to go to the building of the Verkhovna Rada, stretched for more than a kilometer. Only a few hours will pass and in the Mariinsky Park, where Anti-Maidan was encamped, clashes will begin, the first dead will appear, trucks will burst into flames, the police will go on the offensive against the demonstrators, they will scatter in response, and those who are braver will throw at the police the paving stones torn out right there.

But the most terrible day will come on February 20. Then they will start shooting at the Maidan. Footage showing how unarmed activists, hiding behind shields (some of them had wooden shields), stubbornly, meter by meter, move up Institutskaya, past the Ukraina Hotel, to the upper exit from the Khreschatyk metro station. And some fall. And they don't get up. To them, hiding behind the same shields that are useless from bullets, others make their way. But they also fall...

On that day, 45 people from the Maidan side and 3 policemen were killed. In total, according to official data, during the revolution, 123 people died on both sides, of which 19 were representatives of law enforcement agencies. More than a hundred activists who gave their lives are now called the "Heavenly Hundred".

An investigation into the murders is said to have begun on the same day; that the fighters of the special forces "Shadows" fired; that supposedly the snipers were invited from Russia. On the eve of the tragic date, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine reported on the work done: during the investigation, 9.5 thousand investigative actions were carried out, 6 thousand witnesses and victims were interrogated, and the materials of the investigation are 2300 volumes. Guilty verdicts were passed against 26 people.

Too high a price has been paid for the fact that in the place of some officials there are others, but in essence they are the same

So far, the investigation cannot reach those who are considered to be the customers and organizers of the crime - ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and representatives of his entourage. This is angry and annoying, but there is an explanation for this: they ran away and are hiding in Russia. Something else is much more infuriating - that the victims, these ordinary people who climbed, under bullets, made their way to freedom, now they ... No, they are not forgotten. A museum will be created in their honor, just where they were shot. At the mention of the “Heavenly Hundred,” many still lose their breath. Fresh flowers almost never disappear from Institutskaya. But it seems that these boys and men look at us from above and ask themselves: why did you have to die? For what? What has changed after their death in the country, for the sake of which it was necessary to part with life?

Too high a price has been paid for the fact that in the place of some officials there are others, but in essence they are the same. To make life more expensive and more difficult. To without the Crimea. And with the war. To Russia with tanks. They didn't fight for that. And, apparently, not for those ...

Today, those who want to poke at the Ukrainians - they say, "fool, why climbed something?" - enough. But the sacrifices made are not for politicians. It is unlikely that any of the dead thought about what President Poroshenko would do and whether Yatsenyuk would become prime minister. And they were not thinking about Klitschko and Tyagnibok. And that here is a little more - and freedom is nearby. What if you climb a hillock - and it will all be over. What, bitches, you won’t take just like that ...

Until 2013, Ukrainian leaders very often said that Ukraine was the only Soviet republic that gained independence without bloodshed, serious political confrontations, or war. Independence is possible. But we are only now beginning to become free.