1. Repressions and violence: in Donbass and all over Ukraine Results of the protests, repressions and concessions monitoring in August-September 2014
Prepared by Centre for Social and Labor Research
Supported by International Renaissance Foundation and
National Endowment for Democracy

2. Summary
The report presents the systematic research of protests, repressions and concessions of protesters in Ukraine in August and September 2014, focusing on violence against civilians in Donbass and repressions of the protests across Ukraine. After the shelling, the main threats for the civilians of Donbass were robbery, arrests and kidnapping. In spite of the armistice, the total amount of the cases of violence in September did not decrease compared to August. Often, the victims were civilians as well as the representatives of private companies, local authorities, state-owned enterprises and educational institutions. At the same time, the relative level of violence across Ukraine during the protests and the actions of repression against protests was extremely high and even exceeded the level of violence and repressions in the times of Maidan. Three quarters of all repression actions were reported in the Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine; often it was against the demonstrations against the government or against support for the federalization/separation from Ukraine. Arrests, detentions, criminal and legal cases were the most common forms of repressions during last months. Compared to the times of Yanukovych’s reign the law enforcement bodies were less engaged in physical confrontation with the protesters and intervened less frequently in the actions of protest, even though they did not stop the violence against the protesters by their opponents either.

3. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PROTESTS IN SEPTEMBER, 2014

4. Number of protest events

5. Regional distribution of protests*
September 2014
August 2014
2013 before Maidan
Number of events
Percentage
Monthly average number of events
Center
151
21%
160
22% 60
19%
Crimea 15 2% 14 5%
Donbass 72
10% 67 9% 32
East
137
106
14%
Kyiv 80
11% 85
12% 55
17%
South
144
20%
119
16% 58
18%
West
135
183
25% 69
734
100%
320
* The “nationwide” events (i.e., those that were impossible to locate in a particular settlement) are not included into the regional distribution

6. TOP-10 cities with the highest number of protests

7. Reported number of protesters
2013 before Maidan
Maidan
August 2014
September 2014
Number of events
Percen-tage
<10
389
11%
352 9% 71
10% 61 8%
<100
1 560
46%
1 064
27%
224
30%
170
23%
<1000
520
15%
854
22% 60 74
<10000
103 3%
333 11 1% 19
<100000 15 0% 29
>100000 5
Unknown
841
25%
1 313
33%
376
51%
413
56%
Total
3 428
100%
3 950
742
737

8. Protest issues

9. ТОP-10 most frequent protest issues (Ukraine in general, number of events)

10. Protest tactics 2013 before Maidan Maidan August 2014 September 2014
Number of events
Percen-tage
Conven-tional
2 504
73%
2 546
64%
321
43%
344
47%
Confronta-tional
661
19%
905
23%
288
39%
262
36%
Violent
263 8%
499
13%
133
18%
131
Total
3 428
100%
3 950
742
737

11. Protest tactics in September, 2014 in regions*
Conventional
Confrontational
Violent
Total
Center 78 65 8
151
Crimea 6 7 2 15
Donbass 18 20 34 72
East 68 36 33
137
Kyiv 50 12 80
South 66 49 29
144
West 58
135
344
260
130
734
* The “nationwide” events (i.e., those that were impossible to locate in a particular settlement) are not included into the regional distribution

12. Violent activities during protests in August-September 2014 (number of events)*
* Note: the calculation excludes the combat actions in the ‘Anti-Terrorist Operation’ area

13. REPRESSIONS IN AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 2014 (the calculation excludes Combat actions in Donbass)

14. Reactions at protests and other repressions
2013 before Maidan
Maidan
August 2014
September 2014
Number of events
Per 100 protests
Negative reactions
604 18
1 075 27
261 35
241 33
Other repressions
199 6
251
134
204 28
Positive reactions
155 5
263 7 20 3 25
Protests
3 428 -
3 950
742
737

15. Negative reactions against protests and other repressions (number of events)

16. Number of negative reactions per 100 protest events

17. Forms of negative reactions (number of events)

18. Forms of other repressions (number of events)

19. Who performed negative reactions against protests (number of events)*
2013
(before 20.11)
August and September 2014
Maidan
* All cases of violence that involved several actors were automatically classified as "other" to make the amount to be equal to 100%.

20. Who performed other repressions (number of events)*
2013
(before 20.11)
Maidan
August and September 2014
* All cases of violence that involved several actors were automatically classified as "other" to make the amount to be equal to 100%.

21. Negative reactions in the regions*
Protests
per 100 protests
2013 (before 20.11)
Maidan
August and September 2014
Center
101
294 49
637
1 037
311 16 28
Crimea 18 23 10
161
118 29 11 19 34
Donbass 48 59
170
342
239
139 14 25
122
East 61
130
100
341
345
243 38 41
Kyiv
188
255 36
582
492
165 32 52 22
South 83
103
104
621
398
263 13 26 40
West
105
205 27
735
1 309
318 8
Total
604
1 069
496
3 419
3 938
1 468
* The “nationwide” events (i.e., those that were impossible to locate in a particular settlement) are not included into the regional distribution

22. Negative reactions at protests in regions (number of events)*
2013 (before 20.11)
Maidan
August and September 2014
* The “nationwide” events (i.e., those that were impossible to locate in a particular settlement) are not included into the regional distribution

23. Other repressions in regions (number of events)*
2013 (before 20.11)
Maidan
August and September 2014
* The “nationwide” events (i.e., those that were impossible to locate in a particular settlement) are not included into the regional distribution

24. Issues of negative reactions and other repressions
2013 (before 20.11)
Maidan
August and September 2014
Negative reactions
Other repres-sions
Negative reactions per 100 protests
Socio-economic
223 51 12 26 8 9 41 72
Ideological
152 21 17
433 22 33
399
230 50
Political
255 65 28
822 88 31
362
145 61
Civil rights
170
114 18
430
164 48 60
604
199
1075
251 27
502
337 34

25. The most frequent protest issues that faced negative reactions (Ukraine in general, number of negative reactions)

26. The most frequent issues of other repressions (Ukraine in general, number of negative reactions)
* Contrary to negative reactions for other repressions the issue is a motivation of the repressions agent not of the victim

27. VIOLENCE AGAINST CIVILIANS IN Donbass (events with questionable social and political motivations are included In the calculation, though usually they are excluded from our analysis)

28. The most frequent forms of violence against civilians in Donbass

29. Who committed violence against civilians in Donbass?
August
September
* All cases of violence that involved several actors were automatically classified as "other" to make the amount to be equal to 100%.

30. Victims of violence against civilians in Donbass

31. methodology and events TYPOLOGY

32. Coding methodology and events typology
Monitoring sources In protests, repressions and concessions have been coded based on the monitoring of daily news from more than 190 national, regional and activist websites. The full description of the project methodology, coding scheme and the list of monitoring sources are available here: as well as the databases of coded events and full-text reports for General principles of coding The basic unit of coding – protest event – is defined by the following criteria: 1) the presence of political or social demands or criticism; 2) it should be an action (i.e. it is not purely verbal) of public character; 3) it is made by a group of people or one person that are not part of the central government; 4) the settlement on the territory of Ukraine where the event took place and at least the approximate date of the event (up to a month) are known.
In addition to protests the following types of events are included to the database:
Positive reactions to the events (concessions) – practical actions aimed to fully or partially satisfy the demands of the protestors. Promises to satisfy the demands are not included, but official orders, decrees, commands aimed to satisfy protestor’s demands, regardless of whether they were eventually completed or not are included.
Negative reactions to the protests (repressions) – practical actions aimed to prevent or to suppress protest actions, pressure on the protestors, both physical and legal, by the state or non-government organizations-objects of a protest.
Other repressions (systematic coding started from July 28, 2014) – practical actions of the government or private companies aimed to prevent or suppress critical or opposing sociopolitical activity which does not fit the definition of the protest event.
Every event is coded separately, even if it is connected to the previous one except for some extremely similar typical sequences of events. Only those events are coded which have already happened according to mass media reports. However, unsuccessful attempts of protest events which were prevented by law-enforcement bodies are coded. The protest activities which were canceled by protestors because of a court order are not included into the database. A multi-day event is considered to be a single event regardless of its duration.

33. Events typology and a note on data
The regions of Ukraine are defined as follows: Center: Zhytomyrska, Kyivska, Chernihivska, Sumska, Vinnytska, Cherkaska, Kirovohradska, Poltavska oblasts; Crimea: Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol; Donbass: Donetska, Luhanska; East: Kharkivska,, Dnipropetrovska, Zaporizka oblasts; Kyiv: the city of Kyiv; South: Odeska, Mykolaivska, Khersonska oblasts; West: Volynska, Rivnenska, Lvivska, Ternopilska, Ivano-Frankivska, Chernivetska, Zakarpatska. By the tactics we divide protests into three categories: conventional – well-known and commonly accepted forms of protest that do not impose direct pressure on the protest targets, such as pickets, rallies, demonstrations, performances, etc.; confrontational - protest actions involving direct pressure on the goals of a protest (‘direct action’) but not yet causing any direct damage for people or property, such as blocking roads, strikes, hunger strikes, etc.; violent – protest actions with causing (or threat of causing) of direct damage to people or property, such as beating or vandalism.
Note on data Data of 2014 do not include combat actions in ‘Anti-terrorist operation’ area. Also data on violence against civilians in Donbas do not include violence against law enforcement officers or armed forces of Ukraine, as well as against the militia of the separatist republics. Instead, these data include the so-called "questionable" events for which there is no certainty whether they were of socio-political nature or a criminal act. Usually we exclude such events from the calculations. Compared to the previous report of August 2014, there is a notable significant growth in the number of negative reactions and other repressions in August. These events were primarily violence against civilians and were not included in the calculations of the previous report. Also, a significant number of protest events was added that had not been reported by the time we started to work with August database.

34. Background information and contacts
Center for Social and Labor Research was created in 2014 as an independent non-profit centre for the analysis of socioeconomic problems, collective protests, labor relations and conflicts. From August 2014 it includes the team that has been monitoring protests, repressions and concessions at the Centre for Society Research since 2009, but had to leave it because of the fundamental differences in the vision on further development of this organization.
Our contacts:
(Volodymyr Ishchenko)