Automaidan

AutoMaidan (Ukrainian: Автомайдан) is an ongoing socio-political movement that began in Kiev within the Euromaidan.

The initial goals of AutoMaidan included the resignation of the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, as well as Ukraine's alignment with international movements that respect freedom, human rights and campaign for peace. The movement consisted of drivers who were willing to risk and able to protect the protest and supply revolutionary camps, disobey the oppressive government, block streets and bring the Euromaidan to "the ruling elite's" doorsteps.

The movement originated on the 30th of November 2013. In the early morning hours, after the dispersion of protesters on Independence Square in Kiev, car owners started driving around the city with the specific purpose of signaling and displaying Ukrainian and European flags to agitate for massive protests against the oppressive-turned-violent government. Drivers brought hundreds of people to St. Michaels Square for free from across the city and suburbs.

Automaidan organized numerous car processions to residencies of anti-Ukrainian officials including the one on December 29, 2013 to the president's residence in Mezhyhirya to voice their protests at his refusal to sign the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement in December 2013. The motorcade was stopped a couple of hundred metres short of his residence. This resulted in AutoMaidan members being identified and becoming a major target of violent attacks by government forces, militia, and government sponsored titushkys.

One of the organisers, Dmytro Bulatov, was kidnapped by unknown assailants on 22 January 2014 and reappeared on 30 January, having been tortured and visibly injured. On 6 February 2014, while undergoing treatment in Lithuania, he stated at a press conference in Vilnius that he was tortured to admit that his organization was funded and aided by Americans and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine especially and that he was hired to organize the Automaidan and the riots against the (then) current government. During the press conference Bulatov repeatedly stressed that he believed he was abducted by the Russian special forces and that the leader of the Ukrainian Choice Viktor Medvedchuk might have been involved in his abduction. The kidnapping of Bulatov condemned by many, including the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton. In an official statement released from her office on 31 January, she said "I am appalled by the obvious signs of prolonged torture and cruel treatment of Auto-Maidan organiser Dmytro Bulatov, who was found alive yesterday after having been missing for a week. [...] All such acts are unacceptable and must immediately be stopped. It is the authorities' responsibility to take all necessary measures to address the current atmosphere of intimidation and impunity which allows for such acts to take place. All unlawfully detained people have to be released and perpetrators brought to justice." Two criminal cases involving Bulatov have been opened, one treats him as a victim of abduction, another as a suspect in criminal proceedings on mass riots.

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