Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and first lady Olena Zelenska honoured the victims of the Maidan protest in Kyiv on Friday (February 20).

In February 2014, more than 100 protesters were gunned down in the Maidan uprising that toppled the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovich. The victims are now known as “the Heavenly Hundred.”

Zelenskiy, his wife and diplomats placed candles at the memorial to the “Heavenly Hundred” and held a minute's silence.

A Ukrainian court in 2022 ordered the arrest in absentia of Yanukovich, accusing him of treason over an agreement he signed in 2010 extending Russia's lease on naval facilities in Crimea.

The agreement, widely known in Ukraine as the Kharkiv Pact, allowed Russia to keep its Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

Yanukovich had already received a 13-year jail sentence in absentia for treason. That case was related to a letter he sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 1, 2014, asking him to use Russian army and police forces to restore order in Ukraine following the mass protests.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and used the Black Sea Fleet to fire at Ukrainian targets in what Putin called a "special military operation."

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELESNKIY AND FIRST LADY OLENA ZELENSKA HONOURING 'HEAVENLY HUNDRED'

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: KYIV, UKRAINE (FEBRUARY 20, 2026) (UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE - Access all)

1. INDEPENDENCE SQUARE IN KYIV

2. VARIOUS OF MEMORIAL OF 'HEAVENLY HUNDRED' , THE 105 PEOPLE KILLED IN MASS PROTESTS AGAINST THE PRO-RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OF PRESIDENT VIKTOR YANUKOVICH WHO FLED THE COUNTRY IN 2014

3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY AND FIRST LADY OLENA ZELENSKA WALKING WITH CANDLES

4. MEMORIAL SITE

5. ZELENSKIY AND ZELENSKA PLACING CANDLES ON 'HEAVENLY HUNDRED' MEMORIAL

6. CANDLES

7. ZELENSKIY AND ZELENSKA HOLDING MOMENT OF SILENCE

8. MEMORIAL WALL WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF 'HEAVENLY HUNDRED'

9. VARIOUS OF DIPLOMATS PLACING CANDLES ON MEMORIAL

10. MEMORIAL WALL

11. ZELENSKIY AND ZELENSKA HOLDING MOMENT OF SILENCE

12. MEMORIAL WALL

13. ZELENSKIY AND ZELENSKA HOLDING MOMENT OF SILENCE

14. MEMORIAL WALL WITH UKRAINIAN FLAGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS