Russia. Crimea. History. Nikolay Starikov

units, who got different injuries of varying severity, were delivered to the Central hospital of the Interior Ministry – according to a report as of 22:00. Several policemen got serious head injuries. In addition, several law enforcement officers received poisoning with unknown gaseous substance.

      • As of 17:30 the police special forces “Berkut” and the Interior Troops completely purged the Governmental quarter and the October Palace from the protesters. They also took control over the Square of Europe. The Head of the Security Service of Ukraine and acting Interior Minister warned that if the protests do not cease by 18:00, the law enforcement troops would be obliged to suppress the disorder by all legal means[67]. Closer to the evening, forces of “Berkut” and the Interior Troops have driven back all the protesters to the Maidan Nezalezhnosti. During that day and the following night as a result of severe clashes between the law enforcement forces and the opposition supporters 25 people were killed. More than 350 were injured, and more than were 250 hospitalized[68].

      • The five soldiers of the Interior Troops, killed in Kiev 18 February, got the bullet wounds in the area of head and neck – obvious result of sniper fire. This was declared by the Commander of the interior troops of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine Lieutenant-General Stanislav Shuliak in his address. “During the implementation of tasks of maintaining public security and public order in the Government quarter in Kiev on 18–19 February 2014, 5 soldiers of the Interior Troops of Ukraine died of gunshot wounds” – said in an official declaration of the press department of the Ministry[69].

      • The journalist of the Ukrainian newspaper “Vesti” (“News”) Vyacheslav Yeremei was wounded by a gunshot in chest. In the evening of 18 February, armed militants attacked a taxi car that he happened to be in. When the car stopped at a traffic light, militants in helmets, masks, and camouflage wear began to throw “Molotov cocktails” at the car, after that all people, who were in the car, were severely beaten. The journalist was delivered to a hospital in critical condition and placed in an intensive care ward, where he passed away on February 19 at night[70].

      • The situation at the Western Ukraine extremely aggravated.

      • According to the Health Ministry since 18 until 21 February 77 people died in Kiev; Interior Ministry reported about 16 killed police officers[71].

      18 February became the turning point – the militants for the first time explicitly used firearms, and for the first time they were explicitly killing people. Driven back at bay to Maidan by the police forces, they were surrounded there. The only thing remained to do was to give the order to the “Berkut” forces to purge the Maidan, and to let them use firearms. But during the night, this order was not given. One armored police vehicle tried to break through the barricades, but was burned, and the driver had a narrow escape.

      What was necessary to do? The answer is simple: firmly curb the incipient chaos. Declare martial law, curfew, give an order to disperse the militants by force, if necessary – by a military. The “peaceful protest” has been neutralized by troopers of “Berkut”, who just firmly stood at their positions; the violent coup should have been suppressed by decisive actions of the same “Berkut” and other law enforcement units. In a matter of minutes, not even hours, the special forces surrounded the militants and hold them blocked on a limited area; subway trains were stopped, all entrance roads to Kiev were blocked. It was the most real chance to rescue Ukraine. Save Ukraine from the chaos and civil strife. Yanukovich has not given this order. Yanukovich quailed and did not dare to act. Yanukovich began to make arrangements with the opposition leaders and the western envoys. The ensuing chaos and civil unrest were the direct consequence of that not-given command to suppress the riot. The head of Ukraine began his favorite game on two sides – and that, and this – and this finally has led him to the loss of power.

      But on the evening of 18 February perplexity and dismay reigns the Maidan, the opposition is on the verge of defeat. However, the treason on the very top of the Ukrainian power has saved it (the opposition). Yanukovich has chosen money, has chosen personal safety guarantees for himself and for his son-billionaire. Yanukovich has betrayed everybody who had been fighting on the side of the law and against the putsch[72].

      On the night 19 February 2014 in Lvov region militants seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition[73].

      • In Kiev, the command to purge Maidan from militants has never been given. The events of those days will be still subject of thorough analysis and investigation. And they were: as if creating an alternative of the hesitant President Yanukovich, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Alexander Yakimenko took the initiative[74]. He declared about the start of an anti-terrorist operation if the country: ““Security Service of Ukraine and the Anti-Terrorism Centre today decided to commence an anti-terrorist operation on the territory of Ukraine”. According to his words, it was done because the actions of various radical and extremists groups jeopardize lives of millions of Ukrainians”[75].

      • The press department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine claimed 19 February that the police and the Interior Troops of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine has not used firearms when protecting the public order and localizing the clashes in the center of Kiev. “Taking into account the character of fatal wounds of the killed civilians (“blind” injuries, wounds in napes) as well as the specs of the weapons seized, one can admit that these injuries could have been caused to the injured by other protesters. Police reminds that the day before during the liberation of streets of Kiev from the participants of the mass unrest, weapons, which protesters have dropped fleeing from the law enforcement troopers, were found by the police”[76]. On the night of 19 February, a fire started in the House of Trade Unions at Khreshchatik street. Nobody ever stormed the House, but the building somehow caught fire immediately and dramatically. There is quite substantial reasons to believe that, expecting a “Berkut” attack, the militants just tried to “clean up” and to cover their tracks[77].

      20 February 2014. In the morning, the Supreme Rada – according to an initiative of the ceding all and everything President Yanukovich – decided to withdraw from Kiev all law enforcement troops[78]. Yanukovich actually relinquished the power – by his consent to withdraw all loyal to the oath law enforcement troops from the Capital.

      • The Maidan protesters moved forth again – the police retreated. At this moment a mass shooting of protesting militants happened on the Institutskaya street. There were several snipers; they fired from several points. Footages show how the militants with shields were coming ahead and were falling, being struck by bullets, which are flying from behind and from a side. Who was shooting? It is extremely important – to thoroughly investigate the filthy and bloody story of the mass murder of people by “unknown snipers” in Kiev. Yanukovich has stated that he had not given a command to shoot at unarmed people. Such an order really did not exist. Furthermore, the fighters neither of “Berkut” nor of Internal Troops had firearms at their disposal when they were confronting the protesters. These guys could not have killed anyone and were not going to kill anyone. But at the same time, the same “unknown snipers” have made many shots at the law enforcement troopers and wounded more than 20 of them. Namely being exposed to this gunfire, the police forces began to retreat from the Maidan[79].

      • Openly, in front of cameras at a press conference, the leaders of the anti-terrorist units and groups of snipers claimed, that they did not shoot at the demonstrators. Snipers of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine were deployed at the scene of the clashes, but they have not used their special rifles at the protesters – they were preparing positions for anti-sniper fight… “The commander of a unit of the special forces to fight terrorism “Omega”

67

Security officials surrounded the Maidan, and the main barricade is being dismantled. http://www.segodnya.ua/politics/pnews/siloviki-okruzhili-maydan-i-razbirayut-osnovnuyu-barrikadu-496555.html (in Russian).

68

M. Baltacheva. The deadly Maidan. http://www.vzglyad.ru/world/2014/2/19/673233.html (in Russian).

69

Soldiers of the Internal Troops were killed by a sniper. http://kievvlast.com.ua/news/bojci_vnutrennih_vojsk_pogibli_ot_ruk_snajpera.html (in Russian).

70

Kiev February 19: Maidan withstood the night, 25 killed. http://media-polesye.by/news/kiev-19-fevralya-maydan-vystoyal-noch-25-pogibshih-obnovlyaetsya-16259 (in Russian).

71

The truce between the parties. Chronicle of events. http://vesti.ua/politika/37955-demonstracija-sily-pod-verhovnoj-radoj-hronika-sobytij (in Russian).

72

About the received guarantees for himself, he told later in the notorious interview from Kharkov. He even was not smart enough to keep quiet about this in front of a camera.

73

From the district police departments in Lvov stolen more than 1000 firearms. http://www.antiterror.kz/oruzhie/news_2014–02–27–01–53–40–224.html (in Russian).

74

It was Yakymenko, who later give a sensational interview to the TV channel “Russia-1”, in which he would tell about the unknown snipers, who fired on the militants, to the police officers and passers-by. And how a group of sturdy men in camouflage was carrying sniper rifles out from the House of Trade Unions, where the boss was the Maidan’s commandant Andrey Parubiy.

75

Security Service of Ukraine declared about the start of an anti-terrorist operation in Ukraine. http://zn.ua/UKRAINE/sbu-zayavilo-o-nachale-provedeniya-antiterroristicheskoy-operacii-v-ukraine-139155_.html (in Russian).

76

Kiev February 19: Maidan withstood the night, 25 killed. http://media-polesye.by/news/kiev-19-fevralya-maydan-vystoyal-noch-25-pogibshih-obnovlyaetsya-16259 (in Russian).

77

Kiev February 19: Maidan withstood the night, 25 killed. http://media-polesye.by/news/kiev-19-fevralya-maydan-vystoyal-noch-25-pogibshih-obnovlyaetsya-16259 (in Russian).

78

Rada voted for a withdrawal of military forces from Kiev. http://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/politics/rada-progolosovala-za-vyvod-voennyh-formirovaniy-iz-kieva-20022014221100 (in Russian).

79

More than 20 police officers hit by sniper fire in the city center. http://radiovesti.ru/article/show/article_id/127096 (in Russian).