MikeLigalig.com

2013

21 November: President Yanukovych's cabinet announces that it is abandoning an agreement that would strengthen trade ties with the EU, and will instead seek closer co-operation with Russia. Ukrainian MPs also reject a bill that would have allowed jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to leave the country. Protests begin that same night, with only several hundred present at first, but already comparisons with the Orange Revolution begin.


EuroMaidan began on Nov. 21 and continues in Ukraine. It started as a protest against President Viktor Yanukovych's scrapping of a European Union pact and now is aimed at forcing his resignation.
© AFP

24 November: Protests gather pace, with 100,000 people attending a demonstration in Kiev. It is the largest protest in Ukraine since the Orange Revolution in 2004.

30 November: Police launch their first raid on protesters, arresting 35. Images of injured demonstrators spread quickly in the media, raising the international profile of the protests.

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2014

16 January: Ukraine's parliament passes restrictive anti-protest laws, which opponents call "draconian".

22 January: The unrest turns deadly for the first time as two people die from gunshot wounds after clashes with police. The body of a high-profile activist, Yuriy Verbytsky, is found the next day in a forest after he was reportedly abducted earlier in the week.



24 January: Protestors begin storming regional government offices in Western Ukraine.

28 January: As pressure mounts, Ukraine's Prime Minister Mykola Azarov resigns and parliament annuls the anti-protest law.

29 January: Parliament passes an amnesty bill promising to drop charges against all those arrested during the unrest, if protesters leave government buildings. The opposition rejects its conditions.

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21 February: President Yanukovych signs a compromise deal with opposition leaders, envisaging a new national unity government, constitutional changes to hand powers back to parliament and early elections, to be held by December. The deal was brokered by the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland. Sporadic violence continues and in western Ukraine protesters occupying government buildings remain defiant, refusing to recognise the Kiev authorities.

22 February: Events move quickly as protesters take control of presidential administration buildings without resistance and opposition leaders call for elections on 25 May. President Yanukovych is nowhere to be seen and reports emerge that he has left for Kharkiv in the north-east. Parliament votes to remove him from power with elections set for 25 May. Mr Yanukovych appears on TV to insist he was lawfully-elected president, and denounces a "coup d'etat". His arch-rival, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko who was jailed for seven years in 2011, is freed and travels from Kharkiv to Kiev.

23 February: Parliament names speaker Olexander Turchynov as interim president. Mr Turchynov, a close associate of freed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, tells MPs they have until Tuesday to form a new unity government.

24 February: Arrest warrant issued for Mr Yanukovych.


President Viktor Yanukovych (L) is seen as Russia's man

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1 March: Russia's parliament approves a request by President Vladimir Putin to use Russian forces across Ukraine. In response, Ukraine's acting President Olexander Turchynov puts his army on full alert. Large pro-Russian rallies take place in several Ukrainian cities outside Crimea, including in Kharkiv, the country's second-biggest city. Western countries express alarm over the Russian deployment. US President Barack Obama holds a 90-minute telephone conversation with Mr Putin, urging him to pull forces back to bases in Crimea. Mr Putin says Moscow reserves the right to protect its interests and those of Russian speakers in Ukraine.

2 March: US President Barack Obama tells his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that Russia has flouted international law by sending troops to Ukraine. In a 90-minute telephone conversation, Mr Obama urges the Russian leader to pull forces back to bases in Crimea. Mr Putin responds by saying that Moscow reserves the right to protect its interests and those of Russian speakers in Ukraine.

3 March: Russia's military gives Ukrainian forces a deadline to surrender or face an assault, Ukrainian defence sources said. The head of Russia's Black Sea Fleet Aleksander Vitko sets the deadline and threatens an attack "across Crimea". He also reportedly told two warships to surrender or be attacked. But the Interfax-Russia news agency later quoted a spokesman for the Russian Black Sea Fleet as denying the reports, which he dismissed as "nonsense".


Russia has been accused by Ukraine of orchestrating much of the violence in Ukraine

http://www.bbc.com/

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Ukraine has economic ties to both the European Union and Russia.

more at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26387353

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