СУСПІЛЬНО-ПОЛІТИЧНЕ ТА СИЛОВЕ ПРОТИСТОЯННЯ В УКРАЇНСЬКОМУ МІСТІ МАРІУПОЛЬ НАВЕСНІ 2014 РОКУ

Abstract

Events that took place on the East of Ukraine after Maidan and the conquest of Crimea by Russia are considered as separatism movement, which has become a military conflict. However, there is still no clear difference between these notions, as these events haven’t been studied and rethought enough. On this regard, the social — political and violent confrontation on Donbas in February — June 2014 has been analyzed and represented in the article, by the example of Mariupol — a city of Azov region with thousands people. Based on the received information it has been found out that events on Donbas was difficult and ambiguous page in the Ukrainian history, which needs to be stud- ied profoundly and without prejudice. It has been discovered that a part of mar- ginal social organizations together with Communist Party of Ukraine, being col- laborators, were supporting the Pro-Russian movement. However, their aim was ambiguous, as each of them was following their own goal — some were inviting Russian military forces to Mariupol, another part sought to join Russian Federa- tion, some wanted an autonomy for Donbas as a part of Ukraine. The local power, striving to keep peace and safety in the city, at the same time was supporting a part of the Pro-Russian demands, in order to put a pressure on the central authority and to keep its influence on the positions in such a way. However, as opposed to the Pro-Russian the part of Mariupol’s population, with the support of political parties, whose leaders were in power in Kyiv, were speaking out against the aggression of Russian Federation and standing for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Nonetheless, social political conflict grew into the forceful confrontation when sabotage groups, managed by Russian special services, occupied a number of cit- ies of Donbas, which has led to the creation of “DNR”. It has been specified that the capture of Mariupol by the militants was successful due to the organized provo cation on the 9th May, when during the forceful confrontation between Ukrainian military forces and “DNR” collaborators the local population has suffered. The last one has woken a social resonance in the city. On this regard, the Ukrainian military leadership took a decision to retreat from the city, and when the occupa- tional power has revealed its true colors — terror, looting, kidnapping — social attitudes have changed. It gave an opportunity to lead a successful operation on liberation of the city.