WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukraine’s pro-Europe movement Euromaidan, which staged the protests in Kiev that led to the ousting of former President Viktor Yanukovych, has been awarded with the 2014 Lech Walesa award.

Poland’s former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa has been handing out the annual $100,000 award in support of human rights and democracy since 2008.

Walesa said this year’s prize recognized Euromaidan and the “consequence and determination of thousands of Ukrainians” in expressing their “pro-European dream.”

He also called on the world to show solidarity with Ukraine as it fights pro-Russian separatists.

One of the protest leaders who is now mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, accepted the award in Gdansk on Monday.

Despite a ceasefire, fighting between government troops and Moscow-backed separatists continues to take lives in eastern Ukraine.

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