Ukrainians have lately barreled across American headlines with a display of their Olympic-level Molotov cocktail tossing skills and talent for fabricating catapults, provoking some to ask, what the hell is happening over there? While many articles recapitulate the basics—police are clashing with citizens who are protesting President Viktor Yanukovych's Kremlin-pressured u-turn on an economic association deal with the European Union (E.U.)—scant are reports on the government's slipping grip on key demographics and the dynamic and unified opposition.
Central to understanding the significance of the “Euromaidan” movement (meaning “European Square” and referring to the location where protests began in November), is a view of the nation's opposite geographical ends. Despite being mostly landlocked and about as flat as Kansas, “Ukraine” means “borderlands,” as it has historically been a meeting point between east and west. A more literal translation of the name, and more illuminating for the precarious current events, would be “on the edge.”
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Ukraine's Revolution Beyond the Chaos - Reason.com
Central to understanding the significance of the “Euromaidan” movement (meaning “European Square” and referring to the location where protests began in November), is a view of the nation's opposite geographical ends. Despite being mostly landlocked and about as flat as Kansas, “Ukraine” means “borderlands,” as it has historically been a meeting point between east and west. A more literal translation of the name, and more illuminating for the precarious current events, would be “on the edge.”
more
Ukraine's Revolution Beyond the Chaos - Reason.com
