Rise up, Ukraine! (2002–2003)
2002–2003 protests in Ukraine / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rise up, Ukraine! (Ukrainian: Повстань, Україно!, romanized: Povstan, Ukraino!) was a series of protests in Ukraine that occurred from September to October 2002, and then again from December 2002 to March 2003. Similarly to the unrelated Ukraine without Kuchma protests, "Rise up, Ukraine!" was aimed at the removal of Leonid Kuchma as president after revelations about the murder of Georgiy Gongadze and the sale of the Kolchuga passive sensor to Ba'athist Iraq were revealed in the Cassette Scandal. Other matters of concern were the conduct of media during the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the removal of Viktor Yushchenko as Prime Minister of Ukraine, and Russophilia within the government, among other issues.
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Date | 16 September 2002 (2002-09-16) – 19 October 2002 (1 month and 3 days) 9 March 2003 | ||
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Resulted in | Government victory
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"Rise up, Ukraine!" was originally launched by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and supported by the Socialist Party of Ukraine and Communist Party of Ukraine. The Our Ukraine Bloc later joined shortly before the protests began. Attempts to erect tent encampments were stopped by the Militsiya, and a later attempt by protesters to seize the Presidential Office Building was also responded to with force.
Ultimately unsuccessful in overthrowing Kuchma, "Rise up, Ukraine!" nonetheless helped to facilitate the events that would lead to the 2004–2005 Orange Revolution by causing the political rise of Viktor Medvedchuk and Viktor Yanukovych, pushing Viktor Yushchenko into the opposition, and helping to unify the anti-Kuchma opposition behind a single presidential candidate in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election.