In February 2014, only hours after the bloody climax of the Ukrainian EuroMaidan demonstrations, the Polish foreign minister flew to Kyiv, together with his German and French counterparts, to negotiate a peaceful transition of power.
The speed of events soon made the terms of their agreement irrelevant: President Viktor Yanukovych decided to flee the capital. Nevertheless, the mission was a high point for Polish foreign policy. The Poles had gathered a coalition of the big member states, negotiated on behalf of the European Union and marked themselves out as a leader of European policy in the eastern neighbourhood.
