Government forces Internal Troops of Ukraine Arseniy YatsenyukVitali KlitschkoOleh TyahnybokPetro PoroshenkoYuriy LutsenkoOleksandr TurchynovAndriy ParubiyAndriy SadovyiRuslana[1][2]Tetiana ChornovolDmytro BulatovDmytro YaroshRefat Chubarov Viktor YanukovychMykola AzarovSerhiy ArbuzovVitaliy ZakharchenkoOleksandr YefremovAndriy KlyuyevHennadiy KernesMikhail DobkinViktor PshonkaOlena LukashYuriy BoykoLeonid KozharaDmytro Tabachnyk The assault of Euromaidan by security forces on 11 December 2013 was an attempt by Viktor Yanukovych's government to break up the Euromaidan protest through a night assault using Berkut special police units and interior ministry troops.

The government claimed the need to maintain public order and the enforcement of a decision made by the Pecherskyi District Court, that was read by state bailiffs to the protesters.

The Berkut soldiers began to break down the barricades on Instytutska Street, while starting a fight with "Freedom" party deputies Ruslan Koshulynskyi, Oleksii Kaida, Andrii Mishchenko and Oleh Osuhovskyi.

Berkut used tear gas on the protesters and the clouds of smoke were visible over the crowd as reports about arrested and injured people, including MPs, were being aired in the news.

Unarmed protesters with linked arms had been holding the Euromaidan defense line for three hours against the large mass of Berkut from the Instytutska street side of the square.

Scholars noted that the demonstration showed an unprecedented tenacity and self-organization on the part of the protesters - phenomena that are considered unique in post-Soviet mass mobilization.

Its annexation of Crimea and its military incursion into Ukraine were activities that - for a number of observers - indicate a fear of having to contend with "a Maidan of its own, about exercising control in its 'spheres of interests and influence' and about contradictions between East and West, as perceived by Russia.

"[18] On 20 February 2019, priest Ivan Sydor, who had rung the bell of the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery,[12] received the Ukrainian Order of Merit of the third class "[f]or civic courage, selfless defence of the constitutional principles of democracy, human rights and freedoms, discovered during the Revolution of Dignity, fruitful public and volunteering activities".