Ukraine’s second ‘revolution’ still looking for its colour

Standing on the top floor of the giant Ukraine Hotel on the capital’s Independence Square, guests may be forgiven in thinking that the crisis currently rocking the country is yellow and blue, the national colour.

But nine years after the Orange Revolution rocked Ukraine in the autumn of 2004, propelling pro-Western forces to power, the latest crisis pitting pro-EU protesters against President Viktor Yanukovych has yet to identify itself with a colour in that same way.

“We haven’t found it yet,” said Svetlana, lost in her thoughts Sunday as she took part in the tenth major protest to rock Ukraine since November, when Yanukovych ditched a key EU trade and political pact in favour of closer ties with Moscow, sparking angry demonstrations by pro-EU parts of the population.

These continued and even spread to other parts of the country, and what started out as a localised, domestic bout of unrest has snowballed into a titanic tussle for Ukraine’s future between Russia and the West.

Yanukovych has found himself trapped between the two, and while he recently yielded ground to protesters by dismissing the unpopular government, he also has to appease Russia, to which his country owes billions of dollars in unpaid natural gas imports.

“Yellow and blue? Those are the colours of Ukraine, we’re fond of them, but the others (authorities) use them too … I would say grey, because this revolution is lasting so long, and we don’t know how it will end anymore.”

There is nevertheless a breadth of choices.

The European blue — darker than that of the Ukrainian flag — has appeared on many banners during the protests.

The parties of former boxer-turned-opposition-icon Vitali Klitschko and of imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko both use red and white on their banners.

The only other colours really present are the red and black of the far-right nationalist group Pravy Sektor and the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party — the leader of which is one of the three main opposition figures.

The artists covering the walls of Grushevsky street in Kiev, where clashes between police and demonstrators in January saw several die and hundreds injured, have for their part not chosen any fixed colour.

“We will never forget the heroes of Maidan (Independence Square)”, one blue inscription reads.

“The east and the west together”, another red slogan reads. A black graffiti, meanwhile, announces it is time to fight.

Others use green to pen graphic threats: “We will drown the Berkut (riot police) in their own blood”, one reads.