| Director | Igor Lopatonok |
|---|
The film's central thesis is that the U.S. had used Ukraine as a proxy against Russia for many years. It also claims that a large and influential section of Ukrainian protestors involved in the 2014 Revolution of Dignity were neo-Nazis.
The film starts by recounting historical themes such as the Cossack Hetmanate, World War I and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the annexation of Western Ukraine by the USSR, the Great Patriotic War, Ukrainian collaborationism in World War II, the massacre of Jews at Babyn Yar, the Volyn massacre of Poles and the guerilla war of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army against the Soviets up to the mid 1950s.
The film says that during the Cold War, the CIA maintained contact with Ukrainian nationalists in order to have possible channels for counterintelligence towards the USSR, mentioning Ukrainian nationalist leaders including Mykola Lebed, Stepan Bandera, Dmytro Dontsov, Andriy Melnyk and Roman Shukhevych.
It then maintains that the free market economy which was introduced after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the "crazy 1990s", gave rise to a small class of oligarchs who acquired vast wealth and power, while leaving the majority of the population in poverty.
A big part of the film is dedicated to far-right politics in Ukraine, including the organizations Svoboda, Tryzub and Right Sector.
The film mentions the Orange Revolution in which Ukrainians rejected a fraudulent presidential election, and then portrays some aspects of the Maidan protests, including the negotiations over a trade agreement with the European Union, the role of NGOs, and the appearance of US politicians such as Chris Murphy and John McCain. The film states that the Maidan protests, initially peaceful, began to escalate with the involvement of radical elements, including Right Sector activists who were purportedly brought to the Maidan to "muscle" the peaceful demonstrations.
After that, the film presents Oliver Stone's interviews with Viktor Yanukovych and Vladimir Putin, in which they expound their view of the situation in 2013 regarding the trade agreement and why negotiations were paused. The film also covers selected aspects of the events leading to Yanukovych's removal from office by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, claiming that the impeachment against him was unconstitutional.
Finally, the film presents events of the following months, including the invasion and annexation of Crimea by Russia, the war in eastern Ukraine, and the downing of the airliner MH17 by a Russian missile. The film criticizes NATO's eastward expansion and the imposition of sanctions against Russia. It questions the legitimacy of the post-Yanukovych government in Kyiv.
The film concludes by presenting the concept of the Doomsday Clock, which indicated a high level of global risk in 2015 due to the modernization of nuclear arsenals.