Framing and responding to protests: A study of approaches to conflict resolution in Ukraine from February to April 2014

The new authorities that came to power at the end of February 2014 faced a society radicalised by violence during the period of contention from November 2013 till February 2014, challenges from local authorities and groups that refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government and multiple militias that had been created during the Euromaidan period by political parties, local self-government bodies and organizations. The paper studies the ways in which the government and other key actors, including civil society actors, framed the evolving events from the end of February till the government decision to launch the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” in April 2014 and the ways in which approaches to conflict resolution had been formulated, debated and imple-mented. Drawing on theoretical insights on the role of framing and cognitive factors in radicaliza-tion (Snow 2004; della Porta 2013), the paper studies in particular the role of history and memory as resources used by the conflicting parties. In terms of sources, the paper relies on official gov-ernment statements, transcripts of parliamentary debates, news archives of local state and self-government bodies (in particular, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) as well as of civil society organizations and political parties covering the studied period.