1. UKRAINE CRISIS

2. How it all started?
• A prolonged crisis in Ukraine began on 21 November 2013.
• This decision resulted in mass protests by its opponents, known as
the "Euromaidan“
• After months of such protests, Yanukovych was ousted by the
protesters on 22 February 2014, when he fled the Ukrainian capital
city of Kiev.
• Ensuing political crisis in Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea
resulted in the annexation of Crimea by Russia on 18 March.

3. Post-revolution unrest
• Following flight of President Yanukovych on 23 February 2014,
protests by pro-Russian and anti-revolution activists began in the
largely Russophone region of Crimea.[4] These were followed by
demonstrations in cities across eastern and southern Ukraine,
including Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Odessa.

4. Crimean Crisis
• Starting on 26 February 2014, as protests gripped Crimea,
pro-Russian armed men gradually began to take over the
peninsula. Russia initially said that these uniformed
militants, termed "little green men" in Ukraine, were "local
self-defense forces". However, they later admitted that
these were in fact Russian soldiers without insignias,
confirming on-the-ground reports of a Russian incursion
into Ukraine. By 27 February, the Crimean parliament
building had been seized by Russian forces. Russian flags
were raised over these buildings, and a self-declared pro-
Russian government said that it would hold a referendum
on independence from Ukraine. Following that
internationally unrecognized referendum, which was held
on 16 March, Russia annexed Crimea on 18 March.

5. Elections in Ukraine
• Internationally unrecognized Donbass general elections, 2
November 2014
• Amidst the prolonged crisis, multiple elections were held across
Ukraine. The first election held since the ousting of President
Yanukovych was the 25 May presidential election, which resulted in
the election of Petro Poroshenko as president of Ukraine. In the
Donbass region, only 20% of polling stations were open due to
threats of violence by pro-Russian separatist insurgents. Of the
2,430 planned polling stations in the region, only 426 remained open
for polling.
• As the war in Donbass continued, the first post-revolutionary
parliamentary elections in Ukraine were held on 26 October 2014.
Once again, separatists stymied voting in the areas that they
controlled. They held their own elections, internationally
unrecognized and in violation of the Minsk Protocol peace process,
on 2 November 2014.

6. Effects of the crisis
• The crisis has had many effects, both domestic and international.
According to an October 2014 estimate by the World Bank, the
economy of Ukraine contracted by 8% during the year 2014 as a
result of the crisis.
• The war in Donbass caused a coal shortage in Ukraine, as the
Donbass region had been the chief source of coal for power
stations across the country.
• Additionally due to the Ukrainian Crisis, a new pipeline in Turkey
was proposed with an annual capacity around 63 billion cubic
meters (bcm), so as to carry natural gas to Europe while
completely bypassing Ukraine as a traditional transit hub for
Russian gas.