“The case of the Berkut people, who fired the first shots on the Maidan on February 20, was sent to court October 15, 6:30 p.m. Share: Independence Square on February 19, 2014 (Photo: Nataliya Kravchuk / NV) The Prosecutor General’s Office sent an indictment to the court against the former commander of a special unit company Berkut and two of his policemen in connection with the investigation of mass murders of activists on February 20, 2014 on Instytutska Street in Kyiv. About this in”, — write on: ua.news
Independence Square on February 19, 2014 (Photo: Natalia Kravchuk / NV)
The Prosecutor General’s Office sent an indictment to the court against the former company commander of the Berkut special unit and two of his policemen in connection with the investigation of the mass murders of activists on February 20, 2014 on Instytutska Street in Kyiv.
This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office on Tuesday, October 15.
The investigation established that on February 20, 2014, at approximately 9:00 a.m., the Berkut special unit company commander and his subordinates were on Instytutska Street in Kyiv, near the pedestrian bridge.
They, together with law enforcement officers from other units, illegally used firearms — Fort-500 pump-action rifles with cartridges with lead buckshot against the participants of the protest actions. As a result, three demonstrators were killed, and three others received gunshot wounds of varying degrees of severity.
Maidan cases: ex-chiefs of the SBU and 20 high-ranking officials of the FSB of the Russian Federation will be tried in Ukraine
As noted in the Prosecutor General’s Office, these crimes preceded further mass intentional murders and injuries of participants in the protest actions, because the accused were the first to fire the shots.
After committing the crimes, the accused returned to Sevastopol, where they later sided with Russia and helped in the annexation of Crimea.
On February 20, 2014, 48 protesters were killed and more than 90 were wounded in the center of Kyiv. For these crimes, 38 people, including four officials and 34 law enforcement officers, were brought to criminal responsibility, and their cases have already been sent to court. Four Berkut employees have already been convicted, and the trials of the others are ongoing.
Revolution of Dignity and events of February 18, 2014 – what is known
On February 18-20, 2014, the most tragic events of the Revolution of Dignity took place. It was during these days that the largest number of participants in the three-month protests — almost 100 — died in the center of Kyiv.
On February 18, security forces and aunts brutally suppressed the Peaceful Offensive, a non-violent action of protesters who were heading to the Verkhovna Rada with the demand to support the return to the 2004 Constitution (in it, the powers of the president were significantly limited). On the same day, special forces began a forceful assault on the Maidan, during which the House of Trade Unions caught fire, and the protesters were pushed into a narrow ring inside the main square of Kyiv.
The authorities shut down the subway for almost two days — for the first time in the history of the Ukrainian capital. And on February 19, the SBU announced the introduction of an anti-terrorist operation regime in Ukraine – in fact, it was decided to abandon the army and use weapons against the participants of the revolution. President Viktor Yanukovych urgently changed the chief of the General Staff: instead of Volodymyr Zamana, Admiral Yuriy Ilyin, who is more loyal to the president, was appointed.
Earlier, the head of the Department for Maidan Affairs of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Oleksiy Donsky, said that the murders of protesters on January 22 and partially on February 18 remain unsolved in the Maidan cases, which have been under consideration for almost 10 years.
The violent confrontation on the Maidan began with the events of the night of November 30, 2013, when Berkut brutally dispersed the protesters. They allegedly interfered with the installation of the Christmas tree.