THE state murders.
For some 93 days, the people of Ukraine fought one of their biggest and fiercest enemies—the State. The siege of the people against the government began in late 2013 and continued till the following year.
Earlier in the 1990s, Ukraine declared its independence from the USSR. Years later, a politician named Viktor Yanukovych was elected president. The people protested and the result was scrapped. Several years after, that same person came back, got elected, and the results were confirmed. But not all would be good from the perspective of the people—or most of the people. The promise to sign the agreement to enter the European Union was soon scrapped, with Yanukovych aligning with Russia’s Vladimir Putin instead. The people did not like this decision and, by sheer organizing, one man called up a friend and a friend and soon the square was filled with people calling for change and reform.
Everything is captured in this documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom. The film chronicles the day when the uprising began and peacefully enough, before the situation quickly escalates into a war in the urban setting. What is ironic in this documentary and eventually the most compelling contribution of the film is how the state or government, ran by elected officials, becomes the true enemy of the people.
The protest groups increase to multitude. The government sends the police, which in the science of governance are the same force created to protect the people. But the police are there with the Berkut, the riot police formed to break assemblies and rallies. Amazing contradiction there in the construct and act of the government—the structure which is aimed at nurturing citizens and their rights, is the same system from which forces are formed to destroy people and their rights to assembly.
How long can the people resist the vicious force of the police? How does one ever win a war with peace and good intention?
Graphic and, up close, heart-shattering, the documentary brings us into a warzone. The police are not into maximum tolerance. After a few days of stand-off, they rush to where the people are and begin beating them. Not with plastic bats but ones that are made of steel. The demonstrators are shocked. They are not expecting the government to be benign, but they are also not looking at them as hurting them physically or even killing them. The police by their action prove how it is their duty to inflict enough harm that will totally push the protest away.
At a certain point of the film, the viewers will find it difficult to understand the sheer hardheadedness of the people. It will take more days before we recognize the ideology of the people protesting: “We are staying because we want to be free.”
The discourse has changed. The complaint about the president who does not listen and the parliament that does not understand the people’s desire to be part of Europe are what initially fuel the fighting passion of the people. The people are seeing what the problem is all about: their government does not have the people’s welfare in its plans and policies. Their annihilation appears to be the ultimate goal of the Yanukovych government. And war against the people is the ultimate solution to a population clamoring for a better nation.
The documentary details how death and violence escalate in the city of Kiev, in the area called Maidan. We see violence like this onscreen but those acts happen in war-torn countries, where the conflicts are between nations. Winter on Fire takes place in a major city in Ukraine, in an area where monumental architectures including that of the Orthodox Church loom over daily lives. The sight of bleeding and dead civilians is breathtakingly dissonant in a land where a government is supposedly an evolved instrument for order. Government buildings are transformed into headquarters and on-site hospitals. But when the government police begin to shoot everyone including priests and Red Cross personnel, then it follows that the same building where the wounded are treated would be bombed.
Whether this is ideological or not is debatable, but one gets this troubling impression how men and women tasked with enforcing the laws of the state through force can really use assault as if it is the most natural, human recourse. Brutality becomes organic to the state.
In a series of footages, we catch these unforgettable scenes of inhumanity: riot policemen beating any demonstrator who falls down on the ground, battering them repeatedly them as they file past the bodies all doubled up to protect their head and eyes; hurling stun grenades at the crowd; and shooting recklessly at any moving figure. We also see the protestors pulling lifeless or injured bodies away
from the shooting. The camera grabs images of Orthodox Christian priests standing between the police and the people, blessing the people standing in the cold night.
As if the carnage is not enough, snipers begin shooting from the roofs of tall buildings. At this point, retired military men have come to help the protestors. The mostly young population out on the streets is now joined by middle-aged individuals and the elderly. Confronting the riot police, a mother pleads with them to think of one fact: they are Ukrainians killing Ukrainians. Every now and then, opposition politicians appear before the crowd, where they are booed because all this time they are not there to protect the people.
We know what is happening in Ukraine again. At present, we can understand more where this courage of the people come from, with the Revolution of 2014 providing the premise.
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom is written by Den Tolmor, and directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. It is based on the so-called Euromaidan protests, which began with students protesting the Ukrainian government’s refusal to integrate with the European Union, turning into a full-blown revolution. Produced by Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor, the film streams on Netflix.
For non-subscribers, Netflix has made the documentary, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, available for free on YouTube (youtu.be/yzNxLzFfR5w).