Rich Myers: I’ve decided to travel to Kyiv to figure out what is happening out there with Euromaidan

Source: https://www.facebook.com/16bitbus/posts/10151925328585205?stream_ref=10

EuroMaidan in Kyiv is a behemoth machine kept oiled by people who love oiling. I have immersed in it one night, taken through by unexpected people and granted access I never could have imagined. Walking into the gulf between the end barricades and permanent Berkut shield-forward formations leave you uneasy; the area is normally closed, but you may get through with a press pass or some other affiliation…the ground there is burned and black and the riot police stand far away but still visible, unmoving.

Ukrainian House, a city-owned building on Khreshchatyk Street occupied by Maidaners January 26th bustles with friendly people – it is busy tonight due to 70,000 arriving earlier for a rally. On my way up to its many and large front steps, men armed with pneumatic hand guns on their hips push me aside carrying a man on a stretcher to a waiting Mitsubishi SUV. Children play down the road. My companion asked them, in Ukrainian, what had occurred. “Just sick” is the reply.

Inside the former international convention center a woman offers to give me a free hug. I accept, and receive a free hug – this ritual is filmed, she offers the hug to everyone who passes by and a camera films every encounter. On the ground floor a projector lights a wall with films I had not time to intake, further in guards deny access – in a friendly manner – to those they don’t know or who have no press passes. Fortunately, a press pass given to me by a Ukrainian newspaper back in Chicago opens up doors and I am allowed most places. The fourth and fifth floors are closed. Broken windows are fixed, outside you are obliged to throw your cigarette into a bin once finished so as to avoid a mess. People sweep the ground outside. Building, adding – no destruction.

We then meet a man who I thought was dead – you may have seen him in a Youtube video being mocked and abused naked, in freezing temperatures, by the Berkut. Then, a captured demonstrator, now a motivator. My companions greatly desire a picture with him; he enjoys celebrity status among the people of Maidan. I take it, of course – see this picture above with the pretty girls.

Eventually I reach a tent which I’m told very few people are allowed to see – a girl with black hair wearing a silk scarf in the likeness of the Ukrainian flag, her fingernails painted yellow and blue – had arranged it. She is one of the nicest, most concerned individuals I have met; her uncle and brother work inside. A wood stove lies in the center, exhaust running up through the top of the tent – it is warm inside. A table sits with food and drink – I am offered both. Her uncle asks why I am here.

“To see what is happening with my own eyes” I reply, but he speaks no English. One of my three Ukrainian companions translate.

“You want to know why we remain…” he says, and laughs, “…with no action from the other side!”.

Tomorrow I return to the tent to interview this individual, who radiates an appearance of “seen some shit” dismissed by a friendly demeanor. I ask how he sees the next weeks unfolding. The air seems too happy to last.

I do care about balance, but there is no safe method I can find to access the lines behind the Berkut (Ukrainian riot police). Everyone here says to stay away and not go near them. Earlier in the night I mounted a barricade, so as to see them better from 500 feet away and was politely scolded by the girl with the Polish-colored scarf and nails. “Rich, you should get down, they might shoot you”. I get down.

The Berkut – no number to call, no press liason to deal with. They appear as golem army, guarding the precious government buildings – this is the capital city of Ukraine, after all, and plenty of official structures still remain unoccupied to see parliamentary and other administrative work. In their midst, behind the shield-bearers, men called “titushky”, or “government-hired terror squads”, sit and await deployment. They scare me, because the only thing they have is the money Yanukovich pays them to destroy things. I would love to speak to them but they are known to shy away from cameras and break lenses, if not hit you with baseball bats.

The grounds of EuroMaidan on Independence Square seem to be all I can see right now.

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I have addressed the question of neutrality in this situation incorrectly. The “other side” of this is not the government. I don’t need to talk to Berkut. The other side here are those Ukrainians who dislike Maidan, and wish for quick resolution and return to normalcy – I have tried to speak to people of this opinion but they are harder to find and less willing to talk. There are some I know of, though, and I will try to engage them in the coming days.

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Maidaners practicing hand-to-hand combat earlier today. Some don’t like me taking pictures, this group welcomed it. Despite the present lack of front-page catapults, explosions and walls of fire, this camp does not sit idle.