TIMELINE OF EVENTS

NOV. 21, 2013

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announces that his government scrapped plans to strengthen trade ties with the European Union, and that he’ll improve ties to Russia instead. Within days, the streets of Kiev, the capital, are flooded with hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the EU deal, which would have required Ukraine to protect worker rights and to fight corruption. Eventually protesters occupy Kiev City Hall. DEC. 17, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin buys $ 15 billion of Ukrainian debt and reduces the price of Russian natural gas to Ukraine by a third.

JAN. 16, 2014

As protests continue, Ukraine's parliament passes laws against protest, which the opposition denounces. Within a week, two people die in clashes with police, and the body of abducted protest leader Yuriy Verbytsky turns up in a forest. Protesters’ demands are now focused on removing Yanukovych and early elections.

JAN. 24, 2014

Protesters occupy government offices in western Ukraine. In the following weeks, parliament agrees to drop charges against arrested protesters and releases dozens of people who’d been arrested and offers them amnesty, but protesters remain in Kiev’s main square.

TUESDAY- FRIDAY

In sporadic clashes between police and anti- government activists in Independence Square, more than 80 people, including seven policemen, are killed. Even a “truce” does little to stop the mayhem, as people from across Ukraine stream into the city to take up the cause.

SATURDAY

Parliament votes to oust Yanukovych, and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko is released after spending 2 ½ years in prison. She rallied protesters in Kiev Saturday night.