Right now, I could not be more proud of my Ukrainian brothers and sisters.
Everyone knows that in the midst of a revolution like what Ukraine has had, when the government turns on its people, things can easily descend into chaos. Normal people can turn into hooligans.
But, on the whole that’s not what has happened in Ukraine.
The Titushky
The leaders of the government did recruit unemployed young men to come into the cities to work with the police to fight against the protestors. At night, these young men, called titushky would travel around commit a variety of crimes from burning cars to looting, to beating individuals on the street. The primary reason for the hire of these guys was to create the illusion that Kyiv and the country on the whole were descending into chaos and give the government an excuse to institute a state of emergency, and therefore tighter control of the situation. I have a friend who was near an attack from titushky this past week, and he said the police in the area looked the other way.
At first, I was a bit dubious about the government hiring scores of young men to come to Kyiv to start trouble. But one of our friends assured us that his brother, who has been unemployed, was being paid to start trouble in Kyiv. It was the only way he could make money so why not? Many titushky have shared that their situation is similar, how else can they make money?
So what did Ukrainians do when the police and government hired goons were working together to create a sense of panic on the streets? They organized and protected each other.
Wednesday, we got word that lots of titushky were out causing problems, some were even close to where we live. So, like most people we stayed in that evening. But about 10 o’clock, Janna saw a group of about 20-30 young men gathering on the corner of our street. We turned the lights out to watch them, wondering if these were the titushky we had heard so much about. Soon, the group grew to about 40-50 people. Then about 15 took off in one direction, and 15-20 in another. But the whole time, pedestrians walked through the midst of the group unharmed. In fact, they seemed to be friendly with everyone who passed. For over an hour, we watched as these groups roamed our neighborhood, but never really did anything.
The next day we heard what happened. In response to the threat from the titushky, groups all over Kyiv and Ukraine had self-organized into neighborhood watches. If the police weren’t going to protect the people, they would defend themselves. An in many cases, their presence kept the titushky at bay.
On Friday, the president signed a compromise with the opposition lawmakers, and then that night many of the former leaders started fleeing the country, including the president. Lawmakers also started abandoning his party, and on Saturday, parliament voted to impeach the president. Imprisoned, former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko was released from prison and later that night spoke to the tens of thousands gathered on Maidan. Things seemed to be changing rapidly, but I wondered if things would start to get chaotic.
Protesters made their way into the presidents secret and enormous private residence north of Kyiv. But instead of trashing or looting, protestors set up guards for the buildings, because they wanted to keep the interior of the buildings intact so that every thing could be catalogued and researched so that Ukrainians can know the full extent of the corruption of Viktor Yanukovich. Ukrainians were able to tour the grounds and peek through windows. In fact, my friend, Viktor, drove as close as he could, and then he and his family walked for an hour to see the grounds. He said there is no place in Ukraine like it. It was amazing and terrible. But the order which the people are maintaining is just amazing to me.
Yesterday, Sunday, I showed up to church a little before noon (church starts at noon). I wanted to see what people thought about recent events. Even though I was only a little early, only Nadia was awake. One of the boys was on the couch asleep. I thought maybe they had party the night before, celebrating resent events. But Nadia told me that all of the guys in the house (mostly college students) had helped stand guard on the nearby road into Kyiv. They spent the night checking to see that no groups of titushky came into Kyiv.
Just the day before, former President Yanukovich had release a video saying that terrorists and fascist were controlling Kyiv and threatening him with harm. That’s why he fled.
At the time when the government was trying to get itself organized and police were difficult to find, average Ukrainians banded together to protect … each other. Its such a profoundly wonderful thing, that it makes me want to cry. Yanukovich and his government are know for their corruption, greediness, and now they will go down in history as the people who ordered snipers to open fire on their own citizens when a truce had been called. There were terrorists in Kyiv, but they fled on Saturday.
This past week as events in Ukraine have made headlines, my friends have been in the center. One young man was helping to build the barricade between the Berkut and the protestors. One of my best friends was there helping to carry wounded people back away from the front lines when the snipers were targeting medical personnel. They were just Ukrainians who were tired of the corruption and no rule of law.
My wife and I work with an orphan ministry that provides homes for kids coming out of the orphanages and helps them finish their education and get on their feet. So most of our friends in Ukraine are young families involved in our church and college students who graduated from the orphanages. None of them are radicals. But for the past three months, many of them have been involved in the protests that have taken place on Maidan, the center of Kyiv. For months they have been going to the center, passing out hot drinks, medicine and Bibles. They pray there often, they believe that they have to be involved. Part of the reason is that there are radicals in Ukraine, police brutality always breeds radicals, but this has not just been a fight for radicals. They also want to remind people that only Jesus can save Ukraine. The next government will still be human and imperfect.
Yesterday during church, all of these people were there. They talked about the corruption that we’ve seen so far in Yanukovich’s mansion, and other happening. But there was no hate speech. The question they asked each other was, “What have you learned during this time?” And then we spent a lot of time praying for Ukraine, because as everyone said, we have a long way to go. We ended up by asking, how can we help people now? My friends are already planning to go down to Maidan to help with the clean up.
I hope I get to join them.
Everyone knows that in the midst of a revolution like what Ukraine has had, when the government turns on its people, things can easily descend into chaos. Normal people can turn into hooligans.
But, on the whole that’s not what has happened in Ukraine.
The Titushky
The leaders of the government did recruit unemployed young men to come into the cities to work with the police to fight against the protestors. At night, these young men, called titushky would travel around commit a variety of crimes from burning cars to looting, to beating individuals on the street. The primary reason for the hire of these guys was to create the illusion that Kyiv and the country on the whole were descending into chaos and give the government an excuse to institute a state of emergency, and therefore tighter control of the situation. I have a friend who was near an attack from titushky this past week, and he said the police in the area looked the other way.
At first, I was a bit dubious about the government hiring scores of young men to come to Kyiv to start trouble. But one of our friends assured us that his brother, who has been unemployed, was being paid to start trouble in Kyiv. It was the only way he could make money so why not? Many titushky have shared that their situation is similar, how else can they make money?
So what did Ukrainians do when the police and government hired goons were working together to create a sense of panic on the streets? They organized and protected each other.
Wednesday, we got word that lots of titushky were out causing problems, some were even close to where we live. So, like most people we stayed in that evening. But about 10 o’clock, Janna saw a group of about 20-30 young men gathering on the corner of our street. We turned the lights out to watch them, wondering if these were the titushky we had heard so much about. Soon, the group grew to about 40-50 people. Then about 15 took off in one direction, and 15-20 in another. But the whole time, pedestrians walked through the midst of the group unharmed. In fact, they seemed to be friendly with everyone who passed. For over an hour, we watched as these groups roamed our neighborhood, but never really did anything.
The next day we heard what happened. In response to the threat from the titushky, groups all over Kyiv and Ukraine had self-organized into neighborhood watches. If the police weren’t going to protect the people, they would defend themselves. An in many cases, their presence kept the titushky at bay.
The best shot we got of our neighborhood watch.
On Friday, the president signed a compromise with the opposition lawmakers, and then that night many of the former leaders started fleeing the country, including the president. Lawmakers also started abandoning his party, and on Saturday, parliament voted to impeach the president. Imprisoned, former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko was released from prison and later that night spoke to the tens of thousands gathered on Maidan. Things seemed to be changing rapidly, but I wondered if things would start to get chaotic.
Protesters made their way into the presidents secret and enormous private residence north of Kyiv. But instead of trashing or looting, protestors set up guards for the buildings, because they wanted to keep the interior of the buildings intact so that every thing could be catalogued and researched so that Ukrainians can know the full extent of the corruption of Viktor Yanukovich. Ukrainians were able to tour the grounds and peek through windows. In fact, my friend, Viktor, drove as close as he could, and then he and his family walked for an hour to see the grounds. He said there is no place in Ukraine like it. It was amazing and terrible. But the order which the people are maintaining is just amazing to me.
Yesterday, Sunday, I showed up to church a little before noon (church starts at noon). I wanted to see what people thought about recent events. Even though I was only a little early, only Nadia was awake. One of the boys was on the couch asleep. I thought maybe they had party the night before, celebrating resent events. But Nadia told me that all of the guys in the house (mostly college students) had helped stand guard on the nearby road into Kyiv. They spent the night checking to see that no groups of titushky came into Kyiv.
Just the day before, former President Yanukovich had release a video saying that terrorists and fascist were controlling Kyiv and threatening him with harm. That’s why he fled.
At the time when the government was trying to get itself organized and police were difficult to find, average Ukrainians banded together to protect … each other. Its such a profoundly wonderful thing, that it makes me want to cry. Yanukovich and his government are know for their corruption, greediness, and now they will go down in history as the people who ordered snipers to open fire on their own citizens when a truce had been called. There were terrorists in Kyiv, but they fled on Saturday.
This past week as events in Ukraine have made headlines, my friends have been in the center. One young man was helping to build the barricade between the Berkut and the protestors. One of my best friends was there helping to carry wounded people back away from the front lines when the snipers were targeting medical personnel. They were just Ukrainians who were tired of the corruption and no rule of law.
My wife and I work with an orphan ministry that provides homes for kids coming out of the orphanages and helps them finish their education and get on their feet. So most of our friends in Ukraine are young families involved in our church and college students who graduated from the orphanages. None of them are radicals. But for the past three months, many of them have been involved in the protests that have taken place on Maidan, the center of Kyiv. For months they have been going to the center, passing out hot drinks, medicine and Bibles. They pray there often, they believe that they have to be involved. Part of the reason is that there are radicals in Ukraine, police brutality always breeds radicals, but this has not just been a fight for radicals. They also want to remind people that only Jesus can save Ukraine. The next government will still be human and imperfect.
Yesterday during church, all of these people were there. They talked about the corruption that we’ve seen so far in Yanukovich’s mansion, and other happening. But there was no hate speech. The question they asked each other was, “What have you learned during this time?” And then we spent a lot of time praying for Ukraine, because as everyone said, we have a long way to go. We ended up by asking, how can we help people now? My friends are already planning to go down to Maidan to help with the clean up.
I hope I get to join them.
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