Battlefield Ukraine

The Shot Heard Round the World

Petro Kolomoisky was tired after working his eight-hour shift at the steel mill. His father and grandfather had been steel workers, and it had only seemed natural to follow in their footsteps, but it had become a difficult path. This was one of the first months that business had been good enough for the mill to run a full forty-hour work week. As he walked towards Freedom Square where tonight’s political rally was taking place, he suddenly felt incredibly hungry. As Petro sniffed the air, he could smell the charbroiling of some chicken kebabs from one of the vendor trucks parked nearby. His stomach began to grumble and he knew he would need to stop and grab something to eat.

“Hey, there you are Petro. I had just about given up on you,” said Andriy as he walked over to his childhood friend. The two of them had known each other since they were little children playing in the same sandbox nearby their homes.

Turning around, Petro smiled broadly as he saw his friend. “We had a full shift today at the mill. I just got off work,” he replied. He waved his friend over to where he was waiting in line to get some dinner from the food truck.

“The crowds have really come out tonight. Look at all these people” Andriy said as he waved his hand to motion towards the developing assembly.

“Yeah, I’m surprised so many people have showed up after everything that went on last night,” Petro replied as he paid for his kebab and started to walk towards the edge of the square. He took a deep breath of the steam that was drifting from the meat, letting the spice fill his nostrils before he took a giant bite. The juices ran down the side of his mouth as he dabbed at it with a napkin.

“Those police officers got what they deserved,” his friend retorted angrily. Andriy had gotten hit by one of the riot police truncheons two days ago, losing a tooth in the process. He was still fuming about it.

Petro sighed before responding, “Andriy, I am really sorry about your tooth. It was wrong of the riot police to have attacked us like that. We have been peacefully protesting here for nearly a week. But no one deserves to lose their life over this, even the police,” he said in response as he looked across the growing throng of people.

People had been protesting in Kharkiv a lot this summer because of the breakdown in diplomatic talks in Kiev. Folks were angry that no real progress was being made. The political leaders in the capitol were pushing for policies that would integrate Ukraine into the EU, while more than half of the country still wanted to join the Russian trade union with several of the other former soviet states.

Kicking a small stone as they walked towards the large mass of people, Andriy grumbled, “I know. I feel bad for those officers’ families. I do. But they had no right to just come in like they did and ambush us. Something must change my friend. This constant bickering in Kiev is tearing our country apart.”

As the protesters continued to pour into Freedom Square, Colonel Petr Croski was ready. The central government in Kiev had ordered his Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) to Kharkiv to put down this protest movement before it grew any larger or spread any further. After several police officers were killed the other day, it was determined that an ATU had to be sent in to deal with this mess. President Groysman was not going to allow the city of Kharkiv and the surrounding region to turn into civil war like the rest of Eastern Ukraine had. The time for negotiating was over; now it was time to restore order and bring the country back together, even if that meant through the use of force.

Major Dimitri Dremov walked up to his commander, who was standing near the armored vehicle that was acting as their command vehicle. “Sir, I have a company of soldiers at the east end of the city, ready to move in and close off the eastern exit of Freedom Square. I also have another company that is opposite the zoo. They are prepared to move in when you give the order,” he said with a smile on his face.

They had been planning this operation for nearly a day. Their goal was to apprehend as many of the protesters as they could and charge them with crimes against the state. Then, they would identify the ring leaders and charge them with treason and fomenting insurrection against the government.

Pleased with the news, Colonel Croski handed his deputy his flask to join him in a little sip before the operation began. “The snipers are in place, right?” He wanted to be prepared in case things turned violent.

Major Dremov nodded as he took a swig of vodka and handed the flask back, “Yes. I have the three sniper positions set up. I’ve personally seen their positions and they have a good over-watch of where our troops will be.”

“Excellent. Then all we need to do now is sit back and wait for the main speakers at the rally to show up and let the police begin to box them in. Once they herd the crowd into the target area, then order the men in,” ordered Colonel Croski.

Oleksandr Prasolov was from Kharkiv. He had met his wife in high school and married her before leaving to attend undergraduate university and graduate school in London. After completing his Master Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics in the mid-1990s, he went on to work for a well-known global management consulting firm. He led a team for his firm in Russia as the government worked to privatize much of the economy that had been state-owned. Despite his busy schedule, Oleksandr and his wife managed to have two children during this time. He then directed several other major projects for his firm, traveling to a number of the other former soviet republics. Being fluent in English, Russian, and Ukrainian had given him an edge in being able to handle a number of the complex privatization projects these former soviet republics were undertaking.

After Oleksandr made partner with the firm, his wife gave birth to their twin daughters. He then had four children all under the age of seven. One Christmas, he realized his children were growing up right before him but he had not been there for them as much as he should have. As his young son crawled into his lap, he suddenly wondered, “How much of their young lives have I already missed because of my job? My wife and children may have a posh lifestyle in London, but I have been spending so much time away from them, traveling to one country or another. If I don’t change something in my life soon, I will never be the father they deserve.”

After the holiday, he reached out to some of his contacts back in Kharkiv and was offered a job in the Governor’s office, helping him with growing the economy in the region. Within a year of working in this capacity, he was soon offered a position as a deputy minister in the Yanukovych Administration. The President was in the process of negotiating the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement, which would help to integrate Ukraine slowly into the European Union (EU). While he had been a supporter of the EU as an expatriate living in London, the more he delved into the details of this agreement, the more he saw this was not as great a deal as the government was being led to believe.

As he thumbed through the pages of legal-speak, he thought to himself, “I know Ukraine is struggling, but this agreement isn’t going to help anything. In order for us to receive any of the EU subsidies or a bailout from the European Commission Bank or the International Monetary Fund, we would have to undergo a series of severe austerity measures, just like Greece, Spain, or Portugal. This measure would cripple Ukraine. It would take our short-term issue and make it a long-term economic problem.”

He brought these concerns up to others in his committee and to the President; however, most of them were willing to go along with the austerity if it meant Ukraine could get the bailout money they needed and move further away from Russia. Oleksandr was frustrated that no one heard him.

Then, one day, President Yanukovych asked him to start talks with Russia about joining the Eurasian Customs Union, which was led by Russia and included the countries of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Having led a number of privatization projects in many of these countries, Oleksandr was familiar with this customs union and the benefit it could provide Ukraine. The Russians also offered to infuse Ukraine with a lump sum of cash without imposing austerity upon them. They even offered a heavily reduced price on natural gas, which would further help the Ukrainian economy.

Unfortunately, the Euromaidan uprising took place and then spun out of control. Before he knew it, President Yanukovych was removed from his role within the government and forced to leave Kiev. He fled to Russia, and the Ukrainian government was taken over by a pro-fascist EU-dominated element. However, Oleksandr was not willing to let his country fall into the hands of these rogue fascists that were trying to bring his nation back into civil war. By working with Russia and other separatist groups, he gained enough support to rally others around his cause. Together, they called for Eastern Ukraine to be independent from the central government and join the other separatist regions.

As Oleksandr began to hold rallies all across the region, an informant within the separatist movement leaked the Kharkiv plans to the central government and detailed what Oleksandr and the separatist groups were planning. It was at this point that Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman decided to send in an Anti-Terrorist Unit to arrest Oleksandr and end this movement before it spread any further.

Oblivious to the plot against him, Oleksandr looked out at the eager faces of the crowd as one of the community organizers worked them up into a frenzy. He smiled broadly at the sight of nearly ten thousand people who had shown up to hear him speak. This would be his third day speaking here, and by far, the largest crowd. The more people he met, the more confident he felt that he was gaining the support of the region, and soon would be able to call for its independence and breakaway from the central government.

The crowd roared as the lead speaker and organizer of the event introduced him, waving for him to come to the center stage. Oleksandr smiled as he walked towards his friend, shaking his hand as he took the microphone from him. The crowd slowly started to calm themselves, enough so he could speak and be heard.

“My fellow citizens, I want to thank you for your support and for coming here tonight to hear me speak. Our nation has been torn apart by those wanting to impose the will of the German-dominated EU on us. Let us not forget that it was the fascist Germans who occupied our nation once. Now they want to occupy us again, this time, through their dominance and control of the EU.”

The crowd roared. The people were really eating this rhetoric up. People saw what was happening in Greece, Spain, and Portugal and did not want that same fate of austerity to be imposed upon them as well.

Oleksandr raised his hands to calm the people before continuing. “Look at the southern EU members. Greece has been reduced to a beggar nation. They have over fifty percent unemployment… and this has everything to do with the German-imposed austerity they had to agree to in order to receive a bailout from the European Central Bank. Look at what has happened to their country — not just from the austerity, but from the migrant crisis that once again has been created by the fascist German government. They welcome these Muslims into their country by the hundreds of thousands. Now, millions of Muslim refugees are flooding across the Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian borders.” The crowd booed as he brought up the refugee crisis.

“These Muslims do not represent our European Christian values, yet the Germans, in their effort to divide and control Europe, have imported them by the millions to sow chaos and anarchy. If the fascist jackals in Kiev get their way, Ukraine will become a part of the EU and then we will have to accept the German austerity plans and take in hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees, just like every other EU member. I say enough! It is time for the people of Kharkiv to rise up and form our own Republic, independent of the fascist-led government in Kiev!”

Now the gathering was cheering wildly. Oleksandr let the roar of the crowd wash over him as he stood there, basking in the energy of it all. Thousands upon thousands of supporters chanted his name, and then demanded that they separate from the central government.

Within minutes of him ending his opening speech, police dressed in riot gear began to show up at several entrances to Freedom Square. They pulled out their loud speakers and ordered the crowd, “Disperse! Leave the square! If you refuse, you will be arrested!”

Oleksandr grabbed the microphone he had just relinquished to the next speaker and yelled to the crowd, “See?! The fascist government does not want your voices to be heard! They want you to submit to their iron will and that of Germany! Will we submit?”

The crowd angrily shouted a collective, “No! We will not submit!”

Seeing that the situation was only escalating, the police tossed dozens of tear gas canisters into the crowd. As the people began to wail, screaming from the pain of the chemicals attacking their eyes and lungs, the officers stormed in, yelling with a unified roar to create the maximum psychological impact.

Several armed security personnel rushed the stage to protect Oleksandr and the other speakers as the riot police were clearly trying to make their way towards them. Then, without warning, a single shot rang out and hit Oleksandr in the head. The side of his face exploded, splattering skull fragments, brain matter and blood on one of the community organizers standing next to him. His body collapsed to the ground.

Several more shots rang out. More speakers on the stage began to drop. Some had been instantly killed like Oleksandr, while others howled from the enormous pain of their injuries.

A number of the armed security guards began to fire wildly at where they thought the snipers were. At first, the riot police were unsure if the shots were being fired at them, but when one of the police captains saw the armed guards on the stage start to shoot at something in their general direction, he ordered the officers around him, “Use your rubber bullets on the crowd!”

The people in the crowd began to drop like flies. Some were seriously injured by the impact of the fast-flying projectiles. Others were simply stunned with the shock of being shot.

Petro turned to tell his friend Andriy that they should try to get out of the square before the police blocked them in, when he saw dozens of military vehicles start blocking their avenues of escape. The shooting intensified, and the gas cloud from the teargas canisters continued to rise and move closer to them. “Andriy, we need to find a way out of here!”

Andriy could see the fear in his friend’s eyes. “I know. Over there, look. If we can get to that store, we can see if they have a back entrance we can use to get away from the soldiers and police.”

Petro nodded. They both bolted towards the store. As they ran, they almost ran straight into several other protestors. The people were all screaming and running in different directions. It was sheer chaos. They couldn’t believe what was happening. Someone had just assassinated Oleksandr Prasolov right in front of several thousand of his supporters. If they survived the evening, there was going to be hell to pay.

Andriy made it to the entrance of the store. He pulled on the doorknob, only to find the owner had locked it. He turned around to tell Petro when suddenly he was hit hard by something in the left shoulder. He grabbed at his shoulder and saw blood oozing through his fingers.

“Andriy! You’ve been shot! Are you OK?” Petro yelled over the screams of everyone around him.

The pain in Andriy’s shoulder overrode all of his other senses. He looked down. Through a hazy cloud, he saw that blood was really starting to pulse through his fingers. It was July, but he felt surprisingly cold. He glanced up and saw Petro yelling something at him, but he couldn’t fully make out what he was saying. It was just too loud and he was suddenly so very tired. He leaned his head against the doorsill to rest his head and close his eyes for a second… he drifted off and his body slumped to the ground.

By the time Petro got to his friend, he could see that Andriy had just died. “The bullet must have hit something important,” he thought as he rushed to his friend’s side.

Just then, a soldier ran up to Petro and whacked him in the side of the head with something heavy. His world went black.