On August 31, 2015, police and activists clashed near the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv against the adoption of amendments to the Constitution on decentralization of power. More than a hundred people were injured, four National Guard soldiers were killed.
Ukrainian photographer Vyacheslav Ratynskyi filmed the development of dramatic events inside and near the walls of the Verkhovna Rada.
Prerequisites
On July 15, 2015, the Presidential Draft Law on Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine on Decentralization of Power was published. Politicians and a number of experts generally approved the presidential draft transfer of powers. Instead, one of the points of the Transitional Provisions that was planned to be added to the text of the Basic Law was highly debatable. The most important difference between the amended draft law and its first version was the provision on local self-government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In the phrase “Peculiarities of local self-government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are determined by a separate law”, many politicians saw the granting of a “special status” to the non-controlled part of Donbas by Kiev and considered it a “capitulation” of Ukraine in the conflict in the east.
On July 16, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution on sending to the Constitutional Court a presidential draft law on amending the Constitution on decentralization of power. On July 31, 2015, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized the draft law as meeting the requirements of the Basic Law. Consideration of this draft law in the first reading was scheduled to take place on August 31, 2015.
Meeting of the Verkhovna Rada
On August 31, on the day of the Verkhovna Rada meeting, several political forces, including “Svoboda”, “Oleg Lyashko's Radical Party”, “Public Platform” and “UKROP”, organized a rally. People gathered under the walls of the Verkhovna Rada to prevent the adoption of the draft law on decentralization of power. At the same time, a parallel rally was held by the Ukrainian Association of Gun Owners in order to adopt a law on the civilian circulation of weapons and ammunition. At first, the rallies were fairly quiet. Conflicts in the square arose only because the sound from the two scenes set by the protesters was superimposed and the speakers muffled each other.
At that time, in the Verkhovna Rada, after a heated discussion and clashes near the podium, at exactly 1 pm 265 deputies supported the bill in the first reading. Immediately after consideration of the single item on the agenda of the parliament was closed, the anthem of Ukraine was sung in the hall. The anthem also sounded in the square and people learned that the deputies voted for amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine. Clashes immediately began on the street between law enforcement officers and participants of the rally. Protesters approached the metal fence, began to swing it to break into the parliament. The protesters began throwing water bottles at the police and beating them with sticks. Activists with security forces began in several places. Tear gas, smoke sticks, noise grenades and firecrackers were used.
Journalists who were in the parliament building were not allowed outside. Photographers were forced to observe the events from the windows of the second and third floors of the Verkhovna Rada. Next to them, deputies huddled at the windows.
Skirmishes
Photographer Vyacheslav Ratinsky photographed the session of the Verkhovna Rada on August 31, 2015. He then worked for a news agency and working in parliament was part of his daily routine. However, that day there was tension and the emergence of a conflict was predictable. Vyacheslav Ratynskyi recalls that after the Revolution of Dignity, clashes near the parliament were a frequent and common phenomenon. “I came to the Verkhovna Rada to film how the law on decentralization will be adopted. It was clear that problems could not be avoided. The then speaker Parubiy was surrounded by deputies from all sides, the podium was blocked. He was not allowed to put the draft law to the vote,” says Ratynsky. However, at 13 o'clock the bill was adopted. Vyacheslav says that he even saved a photo with the name of the bill on a scoreboard in the Verkhovna Rada.
After the deputies voted and the session of the Verkhovna Rada ended immediately, all journalists and photographers began to move quickly to exit the hall. “I remember how there was a whisper among my colleagues, and everyone started running somewhere. I also ran with everyone,” says Vyacheslav Ratynskyi. “From the session hall there is an exit to the corridors, from the windows of which you can clearly see the entire Constitution Square. There was already a serious push — activists with sticks attacked the National Guardsmen. No one at the time understood how serious it was, or even imagined how it would end.” Slava Ratynskyi recalls that during the Revolution of Dignity, representatives of the Svoboda party made up the backbone of the protesters. Then most of them volunteered to fight in the east, in the ATO. Oleg Tyagnybok's party remained active during the first years after the Maidan.
“I went to the window and saw that the police and protesters were fighting seriously. I started taking pictures, but from one point the frames turned out to be almost the same and I decided to go out into the square,” says the photographer. Vyacheslav recalls that all central exits were blocked. “I wanted to get into the underground passage and go to the square from the side of the Cabinet of Ministers. I met Irina Lutsenko in the corridor and she led me to the crossing,” Vyacheslav Ratynsky recalls the details of that day. It was very noisy outside, there was smoke from checkers around, and it was very difficult to breathe because of the pepper cylinders. “The atmosphere after Maidan and the first year of ATO was very electrified. In the square there were many veteran volunteers who had just returned from the combat zone,” Ratinsky says. He filmed activists in the square and their clashes with the security forces. Firecrackers were constantly going off and it was very loud.
At 13:46 there was an explosion in the square, which was much louder than the previous ones. “Protesters tried to break into the Verkhovna Rada. However, no one expected the events to have such an end. One of the activists threw a combat grenade, which hit the National Guard,” says Vyacheslav Ratynskyi. There were three lines of security forces in front of him and the site of the explosion. Panic began to spread among the people in the square and the pushing continued. A few minutes before Parliament, ambulances pulled up. A crowd of people moved to the hotel “Kiev”, and then slowly dispersed. On that day, four soldiers of the National Guard were killed, dozens of law enforcement officers were wounded.
Court without completion
On August 31, law enforcement officers detained about three dozen activists who participated in a protest in front of the Verkhovna Rada. 16 protesters were arrested for two months in a few days. Among those detained was 21-year-old Igor Humenyuk, who was accused of throwing a grenade at National Guard soldiers. During detention, according to representatives of the security forces, he was found with another grenade. Igor Humeniuk during his detention was a volunteer of the Sich battalion, later subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Shortly before the events at the walls of the parliament, he wrote a report on his dismissal from the battalion and came from the city of Kurakhovo, Donetsk region, to Kiev. Before entering the service, Humeniuk was an active member of the Svoboda party. Igor Humenyuk, according to his lawyer Oleksandr Sviridovsky, “does not admit his guilt in the consequences of the events that occurred on August 31, 2015.”
Vyacheslav Ratinsky filmed one of the vessels. “I have never been able to photograph the guy who was accused of a crime. He looked somehow inconspicuous. I can't even find it in my photos among the protesters. He came to photograph the session of the Verkhovna Rada, and there were clashes, during which people died. Even routine filming can become dangerous at some point,” says Vyacheslav Ratynskyy. Igor Humeniuk, accused of committing a terrorist attack near the Verkhovna Rada, died on July 5, 2023 as a result of the triggering of his own explosive device in the premises of Shevchenkivskyi district of the court of the city of Kiev. How he brought the explosives into the courtroom is unknown.
Vyacheslav Ratynskyi — Ukrainian documentary photographer and photojournalist. He has been working in the field of photojournalism for more than 10 years. Collaborates with international and Ukrainian news agencies and media, including Reuters, The Guardian, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine and others. He has been published in many Western and Ukrainian media, including The Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Telegraph, The New York Times, El Pais, Der Spiegel and others.
Participant in many photo exhibitions in Europe, USA, Japan and South Korea. His photographs have been published in several books. Vyacheslav Ratinsky works in Ukraine. In his work, the photographer explores the impact of war on society, social and political problems.
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The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Katya Moskalyuk
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Foutei
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