Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka on Dec. 20 gave parliament a one-sided story about the violence that ignited EuroMaidan protests as well as international and national outrage. He presented edited video footage showing multiple cases of activists attacking Ukraine’s riot police and not a single clip of riot police officers beating people.
Opposition politiciains in the Verkhovna Rada reacted angrily and chanted “shame” during the prosecutor’s 20-minute speech. Serhiy Sobolev, a Batkivshyna Party member, called on Pshonka to resign. Another opposition member of parliament, Oleksandra Kuzhel, said the prosecutor didn’t understand “anything about why thousands of Ukrainians came to the streets.”
Later the leader of Batkivshchyna opposition party Arseniy Yatseniuk also condemned Pshonka’s speech at the parliament. “Today’s adress of Prosecutor General at Verkhovna Rada just once again proved that he became an advocate for animals that have beaten people and wear police uniform,” Yatseniuk wrote on his Facebook page.
In his address, Pshonka gave his timeline variant of
what happened both on Nov. 30, when the peaceful pro-European rally was
brutally dispersed by riot police on Maidan Nezalezhnosti and again on Dec. 1, when
dozens of people got beaten by riot police after clashes on Bankova Street near
Ukraine’s Presidential Administration.
According to him, the clashes between police and
protesters started on Nov. 29 around 4 p.m., when a car bringing
sound systems to Maidan was stopped by police. The conflict lasted throughout the evening, he said, with tear gas used by protesters against police.
As of 7 p.m. on Nov. 29, there were 500
people at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, some of them with faces covered by scarves, Pshonka said.
At midnight, according to the general prosecutor’s chronology, the stage at Maidan Nezalezhnosti was
dismantled and sound systems taken away. At 3 a.m. on Nov. 30, utility vehicles came to the
square to prepare the area for the setup of the skating rink, although the
protesters opposed the move.
“At 4 a.m. utility workers submitted an appeal to
police. At 4:10 a.m. police called on the protesters to clear the area, but
protesters never reacted and started throwing stones and Molotov cocktages at the
police officers. At 4:30 a.m., the police started takeing active actions to face off with the
protesters from the square. At the same time police officers made a safe
corridor for those ready to leave the place peacefully. At 4:50 a.m., the spot was
free from protesters,” the prosecutor said.
While the first brutal dispersion of peaceful protest triggered mass rallies in Kyiv, Pshonka explained the bloody crackdown as necessary to get Independence Square prepared for the holiday. “Preparations to the Christmas holidays in Kyiv
started much earlier than pro-European protests, and of course the court banned
construction of permanent or long term constructions downtown Kyiv,” Pshonka
said.
According to the prosecutor, 88 people filed their
complaints about injures caused by riot police on Nov. 30 and “only 7 of them
were students, 7 were journalists, 2 foreigners and 2 underaged, the others were
adults,” Pshonka reported. He also admitted that in “particular cases police
officers did exceed their powers” and ensured that both provocateurs and
police officers guilty in causing unjustified injuries and damage will be punished.
Reconstructing the events of Dec. 1., Pshonka said the
day began with a peaceful march between Mykhailivska and Sofiivska squares. However, despite the court ban, protesters moved down to Khreshchatyk
Street and Maidan Nezalezhnosti. City hall and the Trade Unions House were also
seized by protesters.
At 3 p.m., clashes between the riot police and
protesters began on Bankova Street near the Presidential Administration.
Pshonka said
protesters were using smoke bombs, tear gas, selfmade explosives and tried to break the gate near
the Presidential Administration. The activists used a bulldozer to break through the
riot police cordon, he claimed.
“They were throwing stones and pushing the riot police
officers, while police officers haven’t been using force against the
demonstrators for three hours and only at 6:45 p.m. riot police officers used
force to clean out the territory near the administration,” Pshonka said.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed more than 220 people were injured after the clashes with riot police on Dec. 1. Among them were 3
foreigners, 7 students and 24 journalists who sought medical help
after the events.
While 19 activists were arrested after clashes on
Bankova Street, 15 of them have already been released, Pshonka said, while
other four – Viktor Smaliy, Andriy Dzyndzya, Volodymyr Kadura and Yaroslav
Prytulenko — are still under investigation.
In total, some 40 criminal proceedings were opened
after the events that took place in Ukraine since Nov. 24 until Dec. 14.
“The main task of the prosecutor’s office is to find
out who’s responsible for the violent clashes and massive disorders in the city,” Pshonka said, adding that the radical demonstrators who demolished the statue
of Lenin and clashed with police should be punished as well as those top police
officials who gave the orders or allowed police to exceed their powers.
But Ukrainian political consultant and director of Kyiv-based Berta Communications Tars Berezovets says that by accusing protesters of provoking police to brutally disperse the
rally instead of punishing those guilty of exceeding the powers the authorities
just showed their intention to keep riot police as the main guarantee of their
legitimate power.
“Though every force will get its counter argument
sooner or later and the denial to listen to the nation will most likely cause
more violent conflicts,” Berezovets said.
The prosecutor general, however, denied all the accusations
in the lack of objectivity in the investigation and said that biased are those
who accuse the police only.
“Ukraine shouldn’t become a place for training hit men
and criminal gangs,” Pshonka said, finishing his speech. “And let’s respect the
laws we adopt here,” he added, reacting to the indignation of opposition
deputies.
Kyiv Post
staff writers Daryna Shevchenko and Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected] respectively.
