Maidan cases: SBI finds out who fired first shots in February 2014
19 June 2024 21:18
The former company commander of the Berkut special forces in Sevastopol and one of the police officers of this unit were suspected by the State Bureau of Investigation of the shootings on Maidan on 20 February 2014. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the SBI and the Office of the Prosecutor General.
According to the investigation, the ex-commander and his subordinate fired the first shots from pump-action rifles at the protesters on 20 February 2014. On that day, 48 protesters were killed and 90 others sustained gunshot wounds.
on 20 February 2014, the company commander of the Sevastopol Berkut and his subordinates were on Instytutska Street in Kyiv, near the pedestrian bridge. In coordination with law enforcement officers, the Kyiv Berkut special company used firearms against the protesters – Fort-500 pump-action rifles loaded with lead shot cartridges.
The shots killed three protesters and injured three others with varying degrees of severity.
Their shots actually triggered further shootings with the use of rifled automatic and sniper firearms by the special forces of the Kyiv Berkut, the so-called ‘Black Company’, and the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
The commander of the Sevastopol ‘Berkut’ and his subordinate are charged with abuse of power and official authority, unlawful obstruction of the organisation and holding of meetings, rallies, street marches and demonstrations committed by an official with the use of physical violence, the intentional murders of three people and attempted intentional murders of three people.
These offences carry a sentence of 10 to 15 years’ imprisonment or life imprisonment.
The suspects, together with other members of the unit, fled to Sevastopol, where they later sided with the Russians and contributed to the annexation of the peninsula.
