olvement in his poisoning.

[150] All of this eventually resulted in the peaceful Orange Revolution,

bringing Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in
opposition.[151]

Yulia Tymoshenko (right), Angela Merkel and Mikhail Saakashvili

Activists of the Orange Revolution were funded and trained in tactics of political organisation
and nonviolent resistance by Western pollsters[clarification needed] and professional consultants[who?] who
were partly funded by Western government and non-government agencies but received most of
their funding from domestic sources.[nb 1][152] According to The Guardian, the foreign donors
included the U.S. State Department and USAID along with the National Democratic Institute for
International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, the NGO Freedom House and George
Soros's Open Society Institute.[153] The National Endowment for Democracy has supported
democracy-building efforts in Ukraine since 1988. [154] Writings on nonviolent struggle by Gene
Sharp contributed in forming the strategic basis of the student campaigns. [155]
Russian authorities provided support through advisers such as Gleb Pavlovsky, consulting on
blackening the image of Yushchenko through the state media, pressuring state-dependent voters
to vote for Yanukovych and on vote-rigging techniques such as multiple 'carousel voting' and
'dead souls' voting.[152]
Yanukovych returned to power in 2006 as Prime Minister in the Alliance of National Unity,
[156]
 until snap elections in September 2007 made Tymoshenko Prime Minister again. [157] Amid
the 2008–09 Ukrainian financial crisis the Ukrainian economy plunged by 15%. [158] Disputes with
Russia briefly stopped all gas supplies to Ukraine in 2006 and again in 2009, leading to gas
shortages in other countries. [159][160] Viktor Yanukovych was elected President in 2010 with 48% of
votes.[161]

Euromaidan and 2014 revolution

Main articles: Euromaidan and 2014 Ukrainian revolution
Further information on the ongoing protests: Timeline of the Euromaidan

Pro-EU demonstration in Kyiv, 27 November 2013, during the Euromaidan protests

The Euromaidan (Ukrainian: Євромайдан, literally "Eurosquare") protests started in November

2013 after the president, Viktor Yanukovych, began moving away from an association agreement
that had been in the works with the European Union and instead chose to establish closer ties
with the Russian Federation.[162][163][164] Some Ukrainians took to the streets to show their support for
closer ties with Europe.[165] Meanwhile, in the predominantly Russian-speaking east, a large
portion of the population opposed the Euromaidan protests, instead supporting the Yanukovych
government.[166] Over time, Euromaidan came to describe a wave of demonstrations and civil
unrest in Ukraine,[167] the scope of which evolved to include calls for the resignation of President
Yanukovych and his government.[168]
Violence escalated after 16 January 2014 when the government accepted new Anti-Protest
Laws. Violent anti-government demonstrators occupied buildings in the centre of Kyiv, including
the Justice Ministry building, and riots left 98 dead with approximately fifteen thousand injured
and 100 considered missing[169][170][171][172] from 18 to 20 February.[173][174] On 21 February, President
Yanukovych signed a compromise deal with opposition leaders that promised constitutional
changes to restore certain powers to Parliament and called for early elections to be held by
December.[175] However, Members of Parliament voted on 22 February to remove the president
and set an election for 25 May to select his replacement. [176] Petro Poroshenko, running on a pro-
European Union platform, won with over fifty percent of the vote, therefore not requiring a run-off
election.[177][178][179] Upon his election, Poroshenko announced that his immediate priorities would be
to take action in the civil unrest in Eastern Ukraine and mend ties with the Russian Federation. [177]
[178][179]
 Poroshenko was inaugurated as president on 7 June 2014, as previously announced by his
spokeswoman Irina Friz in a low-key ceremony without a celebration on Kyiv's Maidan
Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square, the centre of the Euromaidan protests[180]) for the
ceremony.[181][182] In October 2014 Parliament elections, Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity" won
132 of the 423 contested seats.[183]

Civil unrest, Russian intervention, and annexation of Crimea

Main articles: 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Ukraine
(2014–present), War in Donbass, and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

Pro-Russian protesters in Donetsk, 8 March 2014

Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, is shown in pink. Pink in the Donbass area represents areas held
by the DPR/LPR separatists in September 2014 (cities in red).

The ousting[184] of Yanukovych prompted Vladimir Putin to begin preparations to annex Crimea on
23 February 2014.[185][186] Using the Russian naval base at Sevastopol as cover, Putin directed
Russian troops and intelligence agents to disarm Ukrainian forces and take control of Crimea. [187]
[188][189][190]
 After the troops entered Crimea, [191] a controversial referendum was held on 16 March
2014 and the official result was that 97 percent wished to join with Russia. [192] On 18 March 2014,
Russia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Crimea signed a treaty of accession of the Republic
of Crimea and Sevastopol in the Russian Federation. The UN general assembly responded by
passing resolution 68/262 that the referendum was invalid and supporting the territorial integrity
of Ukraine.[193]
Separately, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, armed men declaring themselves as local
militia supported with pro-Russian protesters [194] seized government buildings, police and special
police stations in several cities and held unrecognised status referendums.[195] The insurgency
was led by Russian emissaries Igor Girkin[196] and Alexander Borodai[197] as well as militants
from Russia, such as Arseny Pavlov.[198]
Talks in Geneva between the EU, Russia, Ukraine and USA yielded a Joint Diplomatic Statement
referred to as the 2014 Geneva Pact[199] in which the parties requested that all unlawful militias lay
down their arms and vacate seized government buildings, and also establish a political dialogue
that could lead to more autonomy for Ukraine's regions. When Petro Poroshenko won the
presidential election held on 25 May 2014, he vowed to continue the military operations by the
Ukrainian government forces to end the armed insurgency.[200] More than 9,000 people have been
killed in the military campaign.[citation needed]
In August 2014, a bilateral commission of leading scholars from the United States and Russia
issued the Boisto Agenda indicating a 24-step plan to resolve the crisis in Ukraine. [201] The Boisto
Agenda was organized into five imperative categories for addressing the crisis requiring
stabilization identified as: (1) Elements of an Enduring, Verifiable Ceasefire; (2) Economic
Relations; (3) Social and Cultural Issues; (4) Crimea; and, (5) International Status of Ukraine.
[201]
 In late 2014, Ukraine ratified the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement, which
Poroshenko described as Ukraine's "first but most decisive step" towards EU membership.
[202]
 Poroshenko also set 2020 as the target for EU membership application.[203]

OSCE SMM monitoring the movement of heavy weaponry in eastern Ukraine, 4 March 2015

In February 2015, after a summit hosted in Belarus, Poroshenko negotiated a ceasefire with the
separatist troops. This included conditions such as the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the
front line and decentralisation of rebel regions by the end of 2015. It also included conditions
such as Ukrainian control of the border w