Barricade #623 Khreshchatyk Street, across from the Central Department Store

On December 1, 2013, after viche (peoples gathering for making important decisions), “ultras” and activists of the Right Sector, members of the all-Ukrainian organization Svoboda and UNA-UNSO (Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense), and protesters from other regions occupied the building of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA). For several months, it became the headquarters of Euromaidan, the revolutionary commandant’s office of the Kyiv City Council, and a hostel. It housed rest and catering facilities, an information center, a center of the Maidan Self-Defense, and later a medical service. It was also a place of formation for the 24th Hundred of the Maidan Self-Defense responsible for defending the approaches to the Kyiv City State Administration.

On December 8, the construction of Barricade # 6 began. The first version was too weak. On the morning of December 11, the Berkut special forces, trying to seize the KCSA, overcame the fortification. Around 9 a.m., three buses with Berkut officers blocked all entrances and exits to the building. The protesters barricaded themselves inside. An assault began. Defending themselves, the Maidan activists blocked the building and used fire hoses on the security forces, forcing them to retreat. Protesters who quickly arrived to help those blocked in the Kyiv City State Administration began to build a new barricade on Khreshchatyk.

The base consisted of a mound of snow, wooden sticks with tires, benches, wooden pallets, etc. Protesters decorated new construction with flags and an installation titled “The Trial of Yanukovych”. It was a scarecrow resembling the president put behind bars, with a table and chairs resembling judges’ chairs nearby so that anyone could imagine themselves as a judge against the usurping president.