So many times in the last few months, there have been calls for a general strike: no one goes to work as another way of making the protest felt by the government.

But hardworking Kyivans didn’t announce a strike, instead managing to fit in both a full work day and saving the world at Maidan.

And so now the government, by shutting down the metro in the Ukrainian capital with a population of three million, is itself ensuring that the general strike does happen. Because, excuse me, Mr. Big walked home on foot from Sevastopolska Square to Heroiv Dnipra. Six hours. At least it was above freezing and the snow had melted.

The city was completely jammed with traffic and taxis simply turned down callers, or only responded to curbside hails for completely insane prices. The government said that it won’t resume metro services “while there are riots in the…