On February 20, 2014, the Security Forces killed 48 people at Euromaidan. The center of Kyiv was on fire. We remember the first day of the Russian-Ukrainian war

February 20, 2014 was the bloodiest day of the Revolution of Dignity. In the morning, protesters on Maidan Nezalezhnosti put out a fire in the Trade Unions Building, which had been attacked by Security Forces the day before. And in the afternoon, they went on the offensive, occupying the Ukrainian House and the October Palace. Most of the protesters died on Instytutska Street, where they were shot by Berkut officers and unknown snipers. In the evening, under pressure from the Maidan, 236 MPs, including 35 members of the “Party of Regions” faction, condemned the actions of the security forces and forbade them from using weapons against peaceful participants in the Euromaidan. A little more than a day later, after trying to reach an agreement with the protesters and promising to hold early presidential elections in December 2014, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital to Kharkiv, and later to Russia. On February 20, Russia began an operation to seize Crimea. Babel remembers what Kyiv looked like on the darkest day of Euromaidan.