Nine years ago, on February 18, the fiercest confrontations between security forces and Maidan participants started in the center of Kyiv, which they call the final stage of the Revolution of Dignity.
Students, teachers and employees of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute were among the first to stand up for civil rights and free opinion. Serhii Bondarev, the student of the Faculty of Informatics and Computer Engineering, died on the bloody Maidan.
He died on this very day, February 18, 2014, from four bullet wounds during the first assault near the Trade Unions Building.
During those three tragic days, February 18, 19, and 20, 2014, between 78 and 83 protesters died on and near the Maidan according to various estimates.
Amid protests, Viktor Yanukovych and many of his entourage fled the country.