Eight years of Ukraine's post-Maidan agony

Ukraine's Maidan, which was also called the "revolution of dignity", turned eight years on November 21, 2021.

It was the tweet by then journalist, and now a high-ranking Ukrainian official, Mustafa Nayyem, that caused the local gathering of supporters of European integration to turn into a massive event with thousands of demonstrators participating. The journalist then posted a tweet urging everyone to gather at the monument of independence in Kiev's centre and bring warm clothes, tea, coffee and good mood along.

The fateful tweet marked the pinnacle of the inconsistent policy run by then President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, who first set out an intention to conclude a trade agreement with the EU and enter an association with the European Union, and then preferred to backpedal not to lose the Russian markets.

However, as it turned out, a huge number of Ukrainians had already grown into the idea of Ukraine's integration with Europe by that time. They believed that Ukraine was not Russia, meaning that the Ukrainian administration was supposed to terminate relations with Russia as dramatically as possible.

What did the Maidan rioters stand for in the end? To simplify as much as possible, they stood for all the good and against all the bad. Generally speaking, this could be the idea of any color revolution.

As for the "revolution of dignity", the protesters demanded the following:

• integration with Europe,
• social guarantees,
• economic growth,
• reduction of utility tariffs,
• a number of other political and economic measures.

In addition to that, they wanted to eradicate corruption and thieves in their government.

As for the relations with Russia, Ukraine has been terminating its relations with Russia for years now. The Ukrainian authorities make up laws against the Russian language, history and culture, and the Parliament of the country, the Verkhovna Rada, is happy to pass them through.

Yet, Ukraine still ranks worst for the standard of living, economic development and anti-corruption struggle. Ukraine is facing impoverishment and extinction of the population at the same time. Ukraine's indicators of population decline remain higher than ever. The country ranks first in terms of mortality from cardiovascular diseases due to malnutrition. Ukraine's birth rate has decreased by 40 percent since 2014.

We are talking about a country here that wanted to become an agrarian superpower. Instead, however, Ukraine is forced to buy most of its vegetables from Russia, even cucumbers.

Today's Ukraine develops legislative ground to be able to sell its land to foreign citizens and companies.

Soon after the Maiden riots in 2014, many experts were led to believe that Ukraine as a state would last for nine years the most. Today it is eight years.

It seems, however, that the country is so used to living under the condition of the permanent crisis that it will exist on the verge of collapse for a long time.

Ukraine's mortality rate has been gradually increasing too. In 2020, excess mortality amounted to as many as 35,000 people with a total number of 616,835 deaths per year. In 2021, excess mortality increased to 46,577 people, and the year is not over yet.

As for economics and politics, the consequences of Euromaidan are developing according to the classic scenario of all revolutions that took place late last century and early this century. The rich became much richer, the poor slipped into impoverished existence. Actually, this was the case of post-Soviet Russia in the early 1990s too.

As of the end of 2020, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine categorised 45 percent of the population of Ukraine as poor.

To crown it all, Euromaidan cost Ukraine its territories (Crimea and Donbass) and started a civil war in the east. The war still continues to this day. These are also the outcomes of the "revolution of dignity".

By and large, Ukraine is living in agony. It has not ceased to exist because a number of Western powers need to have Ukraine this way as an anti-Russian outpost.