The Euromaidan has recently marked its first 100 days. Exactly 100 days passed on March 1 since the date when Ukrainians first took to the streets, responding to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to suspend preparations for the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.
From the perspective of today, that night of November 21, 2013 already looks elegiac and naive. We have seen many disappointments over these 100 days. Some say we have grown up... but is it really so?
The Day invited NGO representatives for an “adult conversation” about Post-Euromaidan: New Challenges on March 4. It was the third roundtable of this cycle. The first took place on December 13 and had as its theme “Systemic Political Crisis in Ukraine. Phase of the Euromaidan.” We then discussed the reasons of the Euromaidan and challenges that it had become an answer to. A key discussion thread was then a serious question: How to keep the moral high ground of the nonviolent Euromaidan? We deliberated on what we would bring out of this experience. The second roundtable was held on January 16, when the temperature of protest began to rise significantly in Kyiv. Its theme was “Euromaidan: What Next?” After all, questions we voiced at the first roundtable, and especially responses to them had not been adequately analyzed, and the situation was turning dangerous... A key issue of the debate was then headlined in Den as How to Fight for European Future and Prevent Sliding into Asian Practices?
We are now in the third phase, when nobody throws Molotov cocktails in Kyiv, there are no burning tires in Hrushevsky Street, Mezhyhiria admits “tourists,” and former “dictator” has fled the country... It is surely a victory! But anxiety has intensified... The country, as one of our panelists, lawyer Hennadii Druzenko said, has found itself dangerously split. Answers to questions “Why?”, “How to fix it?” and “What tools to influence the situation the public has now and can obtain?” will soon be published by The Day in its coverage of the roundtable.
