Ukraine on Friday, Feb. 20, commemorates Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred Day, honoring those killed during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.
It was on these days in February 2014 that the confrontation between protesters and the then-government reached its peak. On Feb. 20, 2014, the deadliest day of the unrest, 48 people were killed in central Kyiv.
They, together with 54 other protesters who were killed or mortally wounded during the winter of 2013–2014, as well as five Maidan activists who died in the spring of 2014 while defending democratic values and Ukraine’s territorial integrity, were named the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred.
The term “Heavenly Hundred” emerged by analogy with the main structural units of the Maidan Self-Defense forces, known as “hundreds.”
A total of 105 Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred were posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine. Three foreigners - Belarusian citizen Mykhailo Zhiznevsky and Georgian citizens Zurab Khurtsia and David Kipiani - were posthumously awarded the Order of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred.
President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in the morning on social media:
“It was the people who won freedom for Ukraine. Ordinary people who care about what will happen to Ukraine and how Ukrainian children will live. We remember what it cost in 2014.”
“We honor the courage of every participant in the Revolution of Dignity, everyone who did not leave Maidan so that Ukraine would not be left without freedom. May the memory of all the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred and every Ukrainian man and woman who gave their lives so that Ukraine would be free be bright,” he added.