Who Perpetrated the Maidan Massacre? Who Overthrew the Ukrainian Government in 2014? A Critique of "Battleground Ukraine"

This article critically examines a book and related writings by Adrian Karatnycky, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, on recent Ukrainian history and the origins of the current Russia-Ukraine war. Karatnycky’s publications are noteworthy because of their direct influence, and because he admits that far-right Maidan opposition snipers massacred both the police and some Maidan protesters, though claiming that they did so on behalf of Russia. The writings examined include a total of five works, with particular focus on the book Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia (Yale University Press, 2024) and an article in Foreign Policy (2024). I examine in particular Karatnycky’s discussion of the Maidan massacre—a mass killing on Kyiv’s Independence Square on 20 February 2014—and the subsequent overthrow of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych. Karatnycky makes various claims about who perpetrated the Maidan massacre, including the Yanukovych government itself and Russian agents seeking to destabilize Ukraine. His claims are brief, sketchy, and largely unsubstantiated. He omits or misrepresents overwhelming evidence that the massacre was carried out jointly by the anti-Yanukovych oligarchic and the far-right Maidan opposition, with the shared objective of toppling Yanukovych. Karatnycky also ignores, or labels as “legend,” evidence of attempts on Yanukovych’s life, an unconstitutional vote in the Rada to remove him from power, and a US government-led regime-change policy in Ukraine during the Maidan.