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Ukraine on Fire
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Wikipedia article
'Ukraine on Fire' is a documentary film directed by Igor Lopatonok and premiered at the 2016 Taormina Film Fest. It features Oliver Stone, the executive producer, interviewing figures surrounding the 2014 Ukrainian revolution such as Viktor Yanukovich and Vladimir Putin. The central thesis of the film is that the events that led to the flight of Yanukovych in February 2014 were a coup d'tat led by the USA with the help of far-right Ukrainian factions.
Synopsis
The film starts with an historical overview, detailing events such as the Cossack Hetmanate, World War I and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, the incorporation of Western Ukraine into the USSR, the Great Patriotic War, Ukrainian collaborationism in World War II, the events in Babiy Yar, the Volyn massacre and the guerilla war of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army up to the mid 1950s. During the Cold War, the CIA maintained contact with Ukrainian nationalists in order to have possible channels for counterintelligence towards the USSR. The film presents Mykola Lebed, who was allowed to enter the USA, while Stepan Bandera was hiding as Stefan Popel in Munich, where he was assassinated in 1959 and thus became the symbol of Ukrainian nationalists, although he was not the most influential leader compared to Dmytro Dontsov, Andriy Melnyk and Roman Shukhevych. The film covers the development in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the "crazy 1990s", in which the free market and poorly regulated privatizations of state assets gave rise to oligarchs, while the standard of living declined among the general public. The documentary recounts the development of far-right politics in Ukraine. In 1991, Oleh Tyahnybok founded a radical national party Svoboda. Dmytro Yarosh founded another far-right organization Trysub (Trident) in 1994, which later merged into Right Sector. In 2004, the nonviolent Orange Revolution took place; in the film's depiction, it was a neck-and-neck race between presidential candidates Viktor Yanukovych (east-leaning) and Viktor Yushchenko (west-leaning). Yushchenko won the election after it had to be repeated due to massive electoral fraud, but disappointed during his term and was not re-elected in 2010; that year his former political opponent came to power.
The historical retrospective is followed by Oliver Stone's interviews with Viktor Yanukovych and Vladimir Putin, in which they explain the situation in 2013 regarding the trade agreement with the European Union and why negotiations were paused. Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko adds that there was information that protests were already prepared for 2015, which were brought forward by the opposition due to the current situation with the EU agreement. The initially peaceful protests were supported by foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Robert Parry explains that there are NGOs funded by US government money that represent their interests, including the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The protest movement on the Maidan also received support from Mustafa Nayyem, a media veteran, notably through an appeal via Facebook on 21 November 2013. In those days, three TV channels were established that focused on Maidan coverage: SPILNO.TV, hromadske.tv and Espreso TV. In the early days, the protests were peaceful, although radical elements were already appearing. On 24 November, the level of aggression began to rise with the storming of a government building; on 30 November, a violent eviction of the Maidan was carried out by the police, presumably on the orders of Oleksandr Popov and Serhiy Lyovochkin (ostensibly to install the annual Christmas tree in the square). On the side of the demonstrators, there were young men who were ready to use violence and provoked the riot police with stones and flares. Among them were Right Sector activists who, according to Richard Parry, were brought to Kiev on the Maidan to "muscle" the peaceful demonstrations, which became more violent.
From December 1 onwards, the film shows the Maidan protests - supported by TV coverage - gaining momentum. An armament took place on the side of the demonstrators: with baseball bats, metal pipes and also using construction vehicles. Yanukovych claims in an interview that these escalation techniques had been planned in advance. The film shows leaflets from other world regions that gave tips on how to prepare for a confrontation with the riot police. The symbol of the outstretched fist is presented as a common meme. Funding of the preparations through foundations such as George Soros' Renaissance Foundation is suspected, the appearance of US politicians (Chris Murphy, John McCain) on the Maidan is shown. The US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, also regularly received representatives of Maidan groups. The intercepted telephone conversation between him and the Assistant Secretary of State at the US State Department, Victoria Nuland, which took place in early February 2014 and in which both discuss a restructuring of the Ukrainian government bench, is presented in the film. Parry describes the strategy of the neocons who are interested in regime change: They demonise the political leadership and put their personal weaknesses in the foreground without taking a closer look at their policies - a black-and-white painting is preferred to shades of grey.
The film introduces the concept of the holy sacrifice: Tetiana Chornovol, who was beaten up at Christmas, and Serhiy Nigoyan, who was shot on 22 January, were useful as Maidan martyrs in the sense of perpetuating tensions. A month later, the gun violence escalated, with deaths on both sides starting on 20 February. Shooting took place from the conservatory, among other places, which was under the control of the demonstrators. Andriy Parubiy is presented as the Maidan commander or leader of the radical opposition. Vitali Klitschko is also shown as an opposition politician calling on the Maidan demonstrators to persevere. Foreign Ministers of France, Laurent Fabius, Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Poland, Radosaw Sikorski, mediate in the negotiations between President Yanukovych and the opposition parties. However, the agreement was not seen as binding by Right Sector activists as long as Yanukovych was still in office. Yanukovych came to the conclusion that a coup was in full swing and could no longer be stopped - he left the country by helicopter via Kharkiv, arriving in Russia on 24 February. The official residence and his residence were occupied by armed groups, the (empty) presidential motorcade had been fired upon.
After Yanukovych fled, the film shows Oleksandr Turchynov as newly appointed interim president. The impeachment procedure concerning Yanukovych is citicized as not in accordance with the constitution: the required three-quarters majority of 450 members of parliament would have required 338 votes; only 328 votes in favour of impeachment had been collected. Because the US State Department welcomed the new government as legitimate, this status quo had been cemented. Sergei Aksyonov became prime minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Shortly afterwards, a referendum in the pro-Russian Crimea decided on secession to Russia. In this context, the film mentions NATO's eastward expansion, which Russia views with concern. In spring 2014, protests arose in eastern Ukraine against the new government in Kiev. One point of criticism was the status of the Russian language in Ukraine. On 6 April, government buildings were occupied by demonstrators and then the Donetsk People's Republic was declared, to which the central government in Kiev responded with a so-called anti-terrorist operation. Furthermore, the riots in Odessa at the beginning of May 2014 are mentioned, in which the trade union house was set on fire and in which many anti-Maidan demonstrators died. On 30 May 2015, the former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, was appointed as the new governor of Odessa Oblast. The film deals with the downing of the airliner MH 17 over the civil war zone in eastern Ukraine, in the wake of which sanctions against Russia were tightened. The concept of the Doomsday Clock is presented, which indicated '3 to 12' in 2015, partly due to the modernisation of the nuclear arsenal.
Release
The film premiered at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy on 16 June 2016; thereafter, it did not receive a general theatrical release but was published as DVD on 18 July 2017. Later, the documentary became also available in the video on demand market via Apple TV and Amazon Prime and since June 2021 also on YouTube.
In March 2022, it was reported that the documentary had been removed from YouTube and Vimeo. YouTube explained they "removed this video for violating our violent or graphic content policy, which prohibits content containing footage of corpses with massive injuries, such as severed limbs"; subsequently, the film was uploaded to Rumble for free viewing. As of 12 March 2022, the documentary was again available on YouTube, this time with a content warning attached.
Reception
Rod Dreher, writing for the 'American Conservative', gave this impression: "I expected 'Ukraine On Fire' to be propaganda, and indeed it was. But that doesn't mean it is entirely a lie, and in any case, it's important to know how the other side regards a conflict, if only to understand how they are likely thinking." He confirmed that some NGO are in the political change business as seen personally observed in Hungary and argues against a black hat vs. white hat interpretation of the situation. According to his assessment, the argument by Mearsheimer and Kennan, that the West has pushed Ukraine and Russia towards an escalating crisis, needs some consideration (not full endorsement) in order to understand the complexity of the situation.
Andrew Roth, writing from Moscow for 'The Guardian', observed that 'Ukraine on Fire' is part of "a series of documentary projects featuring Stone about Russia and Ukraine that reflect a strongly pro-Kremlin worldview", remarking further that "Stone has noted that the films, which are strongly critical of the 2014 Euromaidan revolution and have been attacked as propaganda vehicles, are very popular in Russia."
, a historian from the University of Toronto and author of several books on Ukrainian history, strongly criticized Stone's pro-Russian bias. He suggested to "peruse Karen Dawishas book Putin's Kleptocracy (2013) and some of Andrew Wilsons and Timothy Snyders books on Ukraine". While Velychenko does not deny the possible involvement of foreign intelligence services and assess this as normal business practise in international relations, he allocates only a minor role to them compared to domestic political forces and argues that the focus on external forces only will lead to conspiracy theories or the defense of worldviews.
Antonio Armano, an Italian journalist covering Eastern Europe, critized that the film does mention neither Stalin's dekulakization nor the Holodomor genocide, which may explain why the Nazi occupation during World War II was seen by some Ukrainians as welcomed liberation. Comparing 'Ukraine of Fire' with the documentary 'Winter on Fire' released one year earlier (and portrayed the 2014 revolution positively), he stated that 'Ukraine on Fire' is a "less narrative and emotional" journalistic product, while 'Winter of Fire' is "hagiographic, partial and a bit nave", but manages to stay out of the realm of conspiracies. According to Armano, the main message of 'Ukraine on Fire' is to avoid a new Cold War between the United States and Russia with the potential for nuclear confrontation.
James Kirchick of 'The Daily Beast' called the documentary a "dictator suckup", noting that "Yanukovych ceased being president on 22 February 2014 because he fled Kiev, rendering himself incapable of performing his presidential duties under the Ukrainian constitution. Over three-quarters of the countrys parliament, including many members of Yanukovychs own party, voted effectively to impeach him that day", and "It is astoundingly patronizing for Stone to lecture Ukrainiansthousands of whom have fought and died defending their dismembered country from an all-out invasion by their much more powerful neighborabout what they do and do not know about Viktor Yanukovych, Russia and the potential for a new Cold War".
Pavel Shekhtman, a Russian dissident, also called the documentary "undistilled Kremlin propaganda", arguing among others that from the main Ukrainian political figures described as neo-Nazis by Oliver Stone, only Oleh Tyahnybok resorted to xenophobia and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Tyahnybok's ultranationalist party, Svoboda, subsequently lost most of their seats in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election.
See also
* 'Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom'
* '93: Battle for Ukraine'
References
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