page_title: 2014 Ukrainian revolution
section_title: Initial clashes (Mariinsky and Lypky)
hierarchical_section_title: 2014 Ukrainian revolution / Timeline / 18 February / Initial clashes (Mariinsky and Lypky)
caption_attribution_description: Українська: Kиїв, 18 лютого 2014. Перехрестя Інститутської/Банкової. Громадяни будують барикаду.English: Euromaidan in Kiev. Institutska/Bankova streets crossing, citizens build a barricade.
context_page_description: The Ukrainian Revolution of 2014 took place in Ukraine in February 2014, when a series of violent events involving protesters, riot police, and unknown shooters in the capital, Kyiv, culminated in the ousting of the elected Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, and the overthrow of the Ukrainian Government.
  Successive Ukrainian governments in the 2000s sought a closer relationship with the European Union. The government of Yanukovych had been negotiating an association agreement with the European Union since 2012. Such comprehensive trade agreement with the EU would have impacted Ukraine's trade agreements with Russia, the latter being Ukraine's biggest trade partner at the time. Yanukovych believed that the complications could be addressed, and he said that he intended to enter the agreement, but continued to postpone. This was interpreted as an attempt to back out of signing this agreement, and led to a wave of protests which came to be known as the "Euromaidan" movement. Clashes between the protestors and the riot police became violent, and resulted in the deaths of nearly 130 people, including 18 police officers.
context_section_description: The night before the clashes, Right Sector called on all of its members to ready themselves for a "peace offensive" on 18 February. The Maidan People's Union also urged all concerned citizens to take part in the "peace offensive", which student unions had agreed to join as well. The Maidan Union reported on the morning of 18 February that columns of protesters would begin a march on Parliament at 08:30.
  That morning, around 20,000 demonstrators marched on the Verkhovna Rada as Parliament was set to consider opposition demands for a new constitution and government. Around 09:45, the demonstrators broke through the police barricade of several personnel-transport trucks near the building of the Central Officers' Club of Ukraine and pushed the cordon of police aside. The clashes started after some two dozen demonstrators moved a police vehicle blocking their path to Parliament. At 10:00, a member of Parliament representing Batkivshchyna, Lesya Orobets, reported that police armed with Fort-500T shotguns had begun to attack with flash and stun grenades from Shovkovychna Street and Lypska Street.
  As the column neared the Verkhovna Rada building at 10:08, it met resistance from another cordon of police officers. There were reports that the number of protesters had swelled to 50,000. At 10:18, according to other reports, explosions and smoke were seen on Instytutska Street as people started to tear up roadway paving blocks. Protesters started to throw the pavement blocks at the police, while officers defending themselves with shields tried to subdue the crowd with stun grenades. Protesters who had barricaded themselves near the Dynamo Stadium colonnade began setting fire to tires. At about 10:30, Parliament was set to vote on whether to restore the 2004 constitution. However, it did not happen as Speaker Rybak did not register the bill. 
  At 10:33, the street fights between protesters and the police shifted to Shovkovychna Street. Protesters started to wave 200-hryvnia banknotes in the face of some of Yanukovych's police forces—saying that they were mercenaries—in Mariinsky Park. An activist, Oleksandr Aronets, reported that snipers were targeting civilians. By 11:00, protesters had sustained serious wounds. Molotov cocktails were thrown by the protesters, and on Shovkovnycha Street, a barricade of dump trucks was set on fire.
caption: Protesters building a barricade
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4000", "Image ImageLength": "3000", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SX50 HS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2014:02:19 16:11:42", "Image ExifOffset": "320", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "992", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1106", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8644", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:02:18 14:52:42", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:02:18 14:52:42", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "181/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "149/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF FocalLength": "433/20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3000", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "8393443/512", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "8393443/512", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}