Kiev marks one year since deadly protests

World Today

A year ago at least 60 people were killed during anti-government rallies in the Ukraine. It was the deadliest day during demonstrations in Kiev’s Independence Square. As thousands gather now to commemorate those deaths one Kiev resident finds the memories especially painful.
CCTV’s reporter Stephanie Freid reported this story from Kiev.

A year ago Kulchitsky and his father Vladimir came to Independence Square to join the demonstrations. Kulchitsky was preparing molotov cocktails when events taking place on the ground changed his reality forever.

“Four people were carrying an injured man. I noticed the jacket and the color was familiar. My mother made the jacket,” Kulchitsky said.

His 65-year-old father Vladimir, a craftsman by trade, had been hit by a 12-calibre shotgun fired at close range by government troops. He would later die from his wounds.

Days after his father’s burial, Kulchitsky returned to the protests. He felt obliged to continue the fight in his father’s name.

“God gave him the heroical death as a man – soldier and granted him with a grandson and granted Ukraine with changes. It supports us to remember this,” Kulchitsky said.

It is somehow fitting that Ukraine’s national choir rehearses Mozart’s Requiem in the background as Igor visits the public shrine honoring his father.