Ukraine is in the news daily. The news is sad. I have fond memories of the country where I spent four years in the 1960s when it was still a part of the old Soviet Union. They were some of the happiest years of my life.
The Maidan in Peace. Own Photo
Like many of you, I am now watching the videos and images coming out of Ukraine, following it on my twitter account and watching it on youtube links.
The images of fire and smoke, Ukrainian flags flying, protesters chanting and tents of the Euromaidan are all the more potent for me because I have seen Independence Square in peace.
In 2012 I went to Ukraine to observe the parliamentary election. The election had been quiet and boring, with a sense of resignation of an inevitable victory by President Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.
I went to Independence Square. I saw a quiet and beautiful square, with people wandering to and from shops. Underground there are further shops, and I got lost nearby looking for some friends who’d gone to a nearby restaurant.
I went further afield, being posted to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine’s third largest city, an…
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