Behind Kiev's Barricades In November 2013, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian protesters took over Kiev’s Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) and a number of important government buildings. Initially, the demonstrators gathered to protest against President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to pull out of a deal that would have pushed Ukraine into isolation from the rest of Europe. After a brutal police crackdown the dissents grew in size and shifted their focus on toppling a government seen as brutal and corrupt. My photo reportage covers the period from 16th of February 2014 to early March, from the onset of the violent protests to the beginning of the Crimean crisis. Everything was wrapped in a persistent blanket of smoke rising from tyres being burned to prevent the advance of the Ukrainian president's feared Berkut special forces in their tortoise-formations. It was truly a territorial war as both sides fought to gain mere inches of ground around the government buildings . I witnessed the destruction of the barricades by the police and their subsequent rebuilding, higher and stronger than before, by the demonstrators. Tons of debris built up hour after hour in the streets only to be promptly gathered and piled up on the barricades by the thousands of protesters, who swarmed and rallied like ants defending their nest.
Giorgio Bianchi was born in Rome in 1973. In his photography Giorgio has always paid particular attention to political and anthropological issues, and has undertaken a freelance career to focus on a combination of long-term personal projects and client assignments. He has covered stories in Syria, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal, India, and throughout all of Europe. Giorgio has won several international prizes and has received many public recognitions, and his pictures are regularly published in newspapers and magazines, both paper and online.
