February 21 2024, marked 10 years since the government of Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych, was overthrown during the unconstitutional Euromaidan protests in Ukraine. 

The protests bore hallmarks of Western interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign country, as has been done across the world, since the 1960’s. 

Addressing the protesters were the then United States Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs – Victoria Nuland; Arizona Senator – the late John McCain, who also doubled as the Chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), the foreign branch of the Republican Party; Catherine Ashton – the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union; Guido Westerwelle – former German Minister for Foreign Affairs, among others. 

Later, speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, on April 21, 2014, Victoria Nuland revealed that the United States had poured $5b into supporting the aspirations of the Ukrainian people, to have a strong and democratic government, that represents their interests – effectively confirming the US’ financing of the Ukrainian coup. 

In the immediate, the protests left 108 civilians and 13 police officers dead. Yakunovich agreed to negotiate with the Euromaidan radicals. On February 21, 2014, the President signed an agreement with the leadership of the Euromaidan, represented by the leader of the Fatherland party – Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the leader of the UDAR party – Volodymyr Klitschko, and the leader of the pro-Nazi Svoboda party – Oleh Tyahnybok. 

The agreement was witnessed by the Foreign Minister of Germany – Frank Walter Steinmeier, the Foreign Minister of Poland – Radoslaw Sikorski, and the head of the Europe Department of the French Foreign Ministry – Eric Fournier, representing the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

Upon signing of the agreement, President Yakunovich ordered the withdrawal of law enforcement from the centre of Kyiv, implementing one of the provisions of the agreement. 

A day later, on February 22, 2014, the militants of the Euromaidan occupied Government buildings – effectively carrying out a coup against the legal, legitimate and constitutional government of President Yakunovich. The West were quick to recognise and legitimise the coup. 

The coup marked the beginning of the ongoing political and military crisis in Ukraine. 

In 2014, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that when Russia called for a return to the implementation of the agreement signed on February 21, 2014, and tried to reassure the Western partners, especially those who were guarantors of the agreement, the Western partners said that the train had left and the situation had already changed

Crimea and the Southern region rejected the coup and voted for reintegration into the Russian Federation, as per the UN Charter on people’s right to self-determination. The Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk’s People’s Republic declared their independence. 

President Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko of the hastily organised May 25, 2014, election, presided over Ukraine between 2014 and 2019, on the ideology of military, language and faith. 

He created the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, breaking away from the Orthodox Church of Russia, promoted the Ukrainian language, while expunging the Russian language, and attempted to resolve the crisis in the east militarily instead of negotiating. 

On September 5, 2014, the Minsk Protocol – the first Minsk agreement was signed. The protocol was signed by the Trilateral Contact Group, involving Russia, Ukraine and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), represented by a Swiss Diplomat. The signing was witnessed by the Foreign Ministers of Germany and France. The protocol didn’t stop the fighting. 

On February 12, 2015, the Minsk II agreement, an upgraded version of the Minsk protocol, was signed. The new agreement proposed a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line, release of prisoners of war, constitutional reform in Ukraine, granting self-government to certain areas of Donbas, and restoring control of the state border to the Ukrainian government. 

Again, Ukraine and their Western partners didn’t honour the provisions of the Minsk II agreement, prompting Russia to withdraw from the same. 

Throughout this period, the Ukrainian authorities continued to promote Russophobia, assassinating pro-Russian politicians and writers like Oles Oleksiiovych Buzina, on April 16, 2015. 

The Ukrainians also destroyed Russian history, literature, culture, and monuments and promoted the glorification of the former pro-Nazi fighters. In 2018, Lvov region organised a ceremonial reburial of SS soldiers (Hitler’s elite soldiers), in the village of Chervonoye. This was to undermine the contribution of the Red Army (Soviet Army) in World War II. 

Despite NATO remaining unpopular, as observed by Petro Poroshenko during his presidential campaign in March 2014, that “the level of support of Ukraine joining NATO was too small to put on the agenda so as to ruin the country”, the leadership of Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued to push the idea of NATO, encouraging the West to place heavy weapons and operate biological labs near the Russian border. 

Russia had to act in self-defence on February 24, 2022, and launch a special military operation, to eliminate security threats aimed at the Russian Federation. 

Important to note, is the West’s ultimate motive towards Russia – which is to fragment the Russian Federation into smaller sovereign republics akin to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

A vast, militarily powerful Russia with vast oil, gold, gas, and rare earth metals which most studies put at $75 trillion, remains a threat to Western hegemony and the unipolar world controlled by Washington.

Today, the world has been brought to its knees by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The cost of food especially in the global south that relied on Russian and Ukrainian grain and fertilizer has gone high, and the cost of oil remains high, impacting many businesses, and leading to loss of employment and lives.  

The consequences of the 2014 unconstitutional coup in Ukraine are now present in every corner of the world. 

The writer is a Graduate Student at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) – Saint Petersburg.