In response to anti-protest laws in Ukraine (announced on 16 January 2014 and enacted on 21 January 2014), a standoff between protesters and police began on 19 January 2014 that was precipitated by a series of riots in central Kyiv on Hrushevsky Street, outside Dynamo Stadium and adjacent to the ongoing Euromaidan protests.
During a Euromaidan rally which gathered up to 200,000 protesters, participants marched on the Verkhovna Rada and were met by police cordons. Following a tense stand-off, violence started as police confronted protesters. Protesters erected barricades to prevent the movement of government forces. Four protesters were confirmed dead in clashes with police, three of them shot.
On 28 January 2014, 9 of the 12 anti-protest laws were repealed and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov tendered his resignation and a bill offering amnesty to arrested and charged protesters was issued. On 14 February 2014, groups responsible for organizing the standoff agreed to partially unblock the street to restore traffic, but maintain the barricades and ongoing protests. Following the amnesty of protesters on 16 February 2014, police and protesters both retreated while allowing a corridor for traffic. This lasted until 18 February 2014, when thousands marched on parliament once again, reestablishing Hrushevsky Street and related streets in a new standoff with police. By 19 February 2014, all barricades had been cleared from the streets and the protesters pushed back, though violent clashes elsewhere in Kyiv continued to grow in intensity, resulting in the Revolution of Dignity.
Timeline of the events
19 January
On 19 January, a Sunday mass protest, the ninth in a row, took place gathering up to 200,000 in central Kyiv to protest the new anti-protest laws, dubbed the "Dictatorship laws". The rally was attended by opposition leaders, but was also the first public appearance of Tetiana Chornovol since her alleged attack by the authorities. Many protesters ignored the face concealment ban by wearing party masks, while others wore hard hats and gas masks. AutoMaidan leader Dmytro Bulatov demanded a single oppositional candidate be named, and the crowd also chanted against leaders to comply with this action. Batkivshchyna leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleksandr Turchynov declared that a new, alternative parliament would be created.
Euromaidan activists appealed to the military for its "solemn allegiance to the Ukrainian people" rather than the "criminal regime", and for members of the military and police to not carry out "criminal orders", most notably in the use of force against civilians; they promised those who would be fired for refusing orders of violence would be reinstated once a new government for Ukraine was installed. Former Ukrainian Navy chief, Rear Admiral Ihor Tenyukh, who was removed by President Yanukovych in 2010, warned of the dangers posed by the "coup d'état planned by the current authorities" and called for members of the armed forces to defy "illegal" orders from those in power. "Tomorrow the regime will enslave you too. Therefore we are calling on you to fulfil your military oath of loyalty to the Ukrainian people and not to the authorities who have gone off the rails," he was quoted as saying.
Clashes began as thousands descended upon parliament via Hrushevsky Street, and were met by police cordons, and a blockade of military cars, mini-vans and buses. Police warned protestors via loudspeaker, saying, "Dear citizens, your actions are illegal and are against the state." They also warned that advancing within three meters of police would be considered a threat to police officers' rights and would prompt a response. Tensions developed, and the sides exchanged projectiles as protesters attacked the police barricade armed with sticks, pipes, helmets, and gas masks. They were met with stun and smoke grenades.
Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko attempted to bring calm to the fervor but was sprayed with a fire extinguisher by a protester from the crowd, and shouted down as a traitor. Live TV pictures showed protesters attempting to overturn a bus used by police, which was later set on fire after petrol bombs were thrown. At least three buses were overtaken by demonstrators. Water cannons used to douse the flames were also directed at protesters; an illegal use of force due to freezing temperatures. Later, rubber bullets were used against protesters as more police vehicles were set ablaze. Up to 10,000 protestors remained near the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium by 10 p.m. as clashes continued with smoke filling the air from the burning vehicles. The entire line of police buses used in the blockade was set on fire, and as midnight approached, nearly everything in the square by the Dynamo Stadium was burning. Commenting on the situation, opposition MP Lesya Orobets stated, "War has finally started, laws don't apply anymore." Reports from Lviv indicated that demonstrators in Lviv, Kalush, and Ivano-Frankivsk blocked military units from deploying to Kyiv; with a similar situation occurring in Rivne, blocking Berkut troops. Lviv troops later thanked protesters for blocking their deployment. Automaidan activists by 3 a.m. blocked all roads exiting Yanukovych's Mezhyhyria mansion. In the early morning, protesters in central Kyiv continued supplying molotov cocktails and advanced on police cordons while fortifying barricades to their rear as police continuously used water cannons, fired rubber bullets, and jammed cell phone signals.
By the evening, Vitali Klitschko had arranged a night-time meeting with President Viktor Yanukovych at his presidential mansion Mezhyhirya in an attempt to argue for snap elections to defuse the situation from escalating into further violence. The meeting ended with Yanukovych promising to resolve the crisis with a 'special commission' that included representatives of the administration (including the president), Cabinet of Ministers, and political opposition. Arseniy Yatseniuk took to the Euromaidan stage at about 9:30 p.m. to say that he had received a telephone call from the president telling him the administration wanted to start negotiations to end the political crisis. On Monday, 20 January, the commission was announced by Party of Regions MP Hanna Herman, but that it would convene without the President and be led by National Security and Defense Council secretary Andriy Klyuyev. Opposition leaders refused to take part in the government's proposed commission provided the president abstained from them himself.
20 January
Clashes continued into the second day, with thousands remaining on Hrushevskoho Street, continuing to exchange explosives and rocks with police. Of the 5,000 protesters present in the conflict area at the gates of the Dynamo Stadium near Mariinskyi Park, 200 were seen engaging the 500 riot police without stopping by the afternoon. Berkut riot police were filmed by Radio Liberty throwing rocks at protesters while making obscene gestures towards them. Later in the day, a group of protesters assembled an 8-foot high trebuchet to hurl rocks and other projectiles at police ranks. In retaliation, police lobbed flash grenades, rocks, and Molotov cocktails at protesters. Police snipers scattered over the rooftops in the area but were exposed with fireworks and lasers. By 10:45 p.m., the protestors near Dynamo Stadium numbered 10,000 and they continued to skirmish with thousands of police. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, representatives of the opposition in the Ukrainian parliament were providing weapons to attack the police.
21 January
In the twilight hours of 21 January, after the anti-protest laws had taken legal effect, President Yanukovych ordered a 'bloody crackdown', with police warning over loudspeakers that they might use weapons. Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko signed an executive order authorizing the use of physical force, special devices, and firearms.
Protesters received text messages from their service providers stating "Dear subscriber, you've been registered as participant in the mass disturbances." Responsibility for the messages was denied by the providers, two of which were owned by Russian companies. Experts suggested the government was behind the cell network actions.
Hundreds of armed "titushky" were reported by eyewitnesses in the vicinity, attacking protesters and passers-by, as well as smashing vehicles; some were reportedly transported into the city on the back of large trucks showing no license plates. Soon thereafter, they occupied many of the streets of downtown Kyiv. In one incident, Vitali Klitschko appeared on Franko Street: upon seeing him, the titushky fled. Klitschko then disarmed two of them who confessed to him that they were brought into the city from Kherson and ordered to smash cars and bring chaos to the city. Automaidan activists detained other titushky in downtown Kyiv who admitted they were promised a payment of UAH 220 ($27) to vandalize the city. A number of the titushky, who were apprehended by the protestors, were joined by political opposition leaders and brought to the opposition's headquarters at the Trades Union Building. They were questioned on live television, confessing their actions and job for the government to incite violence and anarchy. The rounding up of titushky was referred to as the titushky safari.
Berkut troops continued to throw molotov cocktails at protesters. Nearing 4 a.m., the bells of St. Michael's Cathedral sounded its bells in alarm, as it did on the night of 30 November police crackdown on the Maidan. Meanwhile, the standoff continued with police until noon, when a ceasefire began between roughly 500 police officers and 1,000 protesters and priests standing within the buffer.
22 January
At 6 a.m. local time on Unity Day, police shot and killed two protesters with live ammunition. Following news of the deaths, protesters retreated and dispersed from the vicinity of Dynamo Stadium. This allowed police to advance and retake the area for a brief period, before being pushed back once more by protesters.
In response to the escalating violence, police were permitted by the government to increase measures to stopping the riots and protests. Police were now able to block roads to restrict access to the city, and allowed the use of water cannons against rioters regardless of air temperature (−10 C at the time of the announcement).
Police fired rubber rounds against journalists and cameramen that were present, and continued to throw molotov cocktails at protesters. Eyewitnesses said police were firing indiscriminately with rubber and regular bullets into the crowd periodically throughout the day, striking an unknown number of people. Hundreds were injured, and significant damage was done to cars on the scene that were set ablaze as in previous days. Journalists found numerous ammunition shells on the ground. Police and medics confirmed live rounds were used in the shooting deaths of two protesters earlier in the day. The prime minister denied that the police carried live ammunition. The co-ordinator of the protesters' medical corps said that five people had been killed, four from gunshot wounds and one in a fall. About 100 meters behind the front line, protesters erected a secondary barricade using cement planters and steel ripped from massive billboards, to slow police if they tried to chase protesters back to the square again. By evening 300 were injured and four dead by police gunfire.
23 January
The truce between the two sides from the opposition's ultimatum to the government held, which expired at 8 p.m. Fire from the conflict zone spread and a shop was burned down on the first floor of the seven-story building, 40 square meters in area (at 2 Museum Alley). The fire was caused by the burning rubber tires that blocked the vulytsia Hrushevskoho. The burning tires were set to provide smoke screen for protesters.
Euromaidan activists documented police brutality with instances of sadism on multiple occasions from Berkut and servicemen of the Internal Troops of Ukraine, wherein officers assaulted activists and even random people and would humiliate them using excessive foul language, and force them to undress. In a video leaked to YouTube, Interior Ministry troops tortured and humiliated a Euromaidan activist on Hrushevsky street; he was stripped naked in the cold after being beaten, and photographed by officers. The video was in close proximity, indicating that it was leaked by an officer, a sign of discontent within police ranks. BBC News interviewed another protester who was photographing the Hrushevskoho Street protests, and then beaten and stabbed by police.
On 23 January reports surfaced that riot police were engaging in the use of improvised grenades, taping nails and other shrapnel to conventional stun grenades. On 23 January 2014, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine officially apologized for the "unacceptable actions of people in police uniform" in the scandalous video filming a naked detainee.