Ukraine — The Orange Revolution

[Alex]

The chill in the air didn't matter anymore.

They had been standing here for hours, bundled in whatever they could find, holding signs and shouting until their voices cracked and ached. But they weren't leaving. Not until they heard them—not until they listened.

Ukrainians knew the election was going to be dirty—Yanukovych had Kuchma's backing and whatever mafioso was willing to kill for him, and everyone knew the government had no intention of letting Yushchenko or Moroz win. But the scale of it was too much to ignore. Ballot boxes stuffed before voting even started. Opposition observers kicked out of polling stations. People that were being bused around to vote multiple times.

And then the poisoning. That was the moment they knew they couldn't stay silent anymore. Yushchenko's face—his face—was the proof they needed that this regime would stop at nothing to stay in power.

The results came in, they tried to tell them Yanukovych had won. Lies. All lies.

The people flooded Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the heart of Kyiv, the moment the results were announced. There were tens of thousands of them at first, but by the second day, it felt like the whole city had turned orange and red. Scarves, hats, banners—they wore Yushchenko and Moroz's colours like armour. It wasn't just about those politicians anymore, it was about them all, about every Ukrainian who was sick of being silenced, sick of being robbed, sick of being murdered for speaking out.

The police were everywhere, trying to intimidate them, but the protestors remained strong. Their faces hidden behind helmets looked unsure. How could they not? They weren't just students or activists. They were workers, parents, pensioners. They were Ukraine.

The regime tried everything to break them. But when the Supreme Court agreed to hear Yushchenko and Moroz's appeals, the protestors could not be ignored any longer.

The election results were to be invalidated due to widespread fraud. Next month, a new election was to be held, and this time there would be no oligarch mafioso to break them.