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Ordinary people Fighting for a new future on the streets of Kiev. But will tomorrow bring any significant change. Photographs: Sasha Maksymenko. Words: Tony Sutton
L
ook at Sasha Maksymenko’s grim photographs from the street riots in Kiev that led to the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych and, later, the takeover of the Crimea by Russia. Look at the faces. Young. Middle aged. Old. School age to pensioners. Full of fight. Full of resolve. Full of determination. Ready to fight – and die – for their homeland. And wonder. What they were doing in the years/weeks/days before they became street fighters, dressed in camouflage, armed with pistols, blocks of wood and petrol bombs? They were ordinary people, law-abiding citizens, pushed
towards the brink that separates civilised society from anarchy, death and destruction. What drove them to that state? Dissatisfaction with a regime that offered no future – lies in place of hope, stagnation instead of change? A natural desire to fight back and create a better life for themselves and their families? Or was it propaganda from outside? Foreign governments stoking the fear, dangling billions of dollars of aid, without mentioning the years of austerity that will follow? Austerity that will likely ravage the lives of these same people. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. CT
l See more of Sasha Maksymenko’s photographs at http://www.flickr.com/photos/112078056@N07/with/12159231825/ 42 ColdType | April 2014