Ukraine without Kuchma

Ukraine without Kuchma
Mass protest in Khreschatyk, 6 February 2001
Date15 December 2000 – 9 March 2001
Location
City of Kyiv
Shevchenko Memorial Park
Caused byCassette Scandal
GoalsInvestigation of Georgiy Gongadze disappearance
Resulted inUnrest extinguished
Parties
Lead figures
Number
2,000–4,000
up to 7,000
Casualties and losses
Policemen wounded: 12
Activists arrested: 203

Ukraine without Kuchma (Ukrainian: Україна без Кучми; Ukrayina bez Kuchmy, Russian: Украина без Кучмы, UBK) was a mass protest campaign that took place in Ukraine in 2000–2001, demanding the resignation of President Leonid Kuchma, and preceding the Orange Revolution. Unlike the Orange Revolution, Ukraine without Kuchma was effectively extinguished by the government enforcement units, and followed by numerous arrests of the opposition and the Ukrainian-speaking participants. Seeking the criminal responsibility for those events was renewed with the election of Viktor Yanukovych as the President of Ukraine.[1]

"Ukraine without Kuchma" was organized by the political opposition, influenced by the infamous Cassette Scandal, presidential elections of 1999, and aimed mainly to demand the resignation of the newly re-elected President Kuchma. The protests did not disappear untraced and resulted in consolidation of the democratic opposition which led to the Orange Revolution.

  1. ^ "The Prosecutor General's Office is digging under Shkil and other organizers of "Ukraine without Kuchma"". Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 15 September 2010.