First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Combating Organized Crime and Corruption Hennadiy Moskal (Batkivschyna all-Ukrainian Union) has claimed that the protesters were shot at by snipers from a special detachment of the Interior Ministry.
“The temporary Verkhovna Rada investigating committee of unlawful acts by law enforcers during the mass socio-political protest rallies has obtained evidence that the special detachment was personally set up by Internal Troops Commander Stanislav Shuliak, who connected to the shooting at the protesters with sniper rifles. The detachment is from the Crimea regional directorate of the interior troops and its commander is Serhiy Asavaliuk. The fighters of this detachment were the ones filmed by journalists; and their radio communications were recorded,” reports the press service of the MP Moskal on Friday night.
According to the MP, the interior troops command bought 80 British-made AVK sniper rifles from the Ukrainian company Tactical Systems for this detachment (this information is available in the Visnyk Derzhavnykh Zakupivel bulletin).
As head of the investigating committee, Moskal appealed to former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka to confiscate these rifles due to the criminal proceeding and to organize a ballistics test to find out if those were the rifles used to shoot the protesters on Feb. 20.
Also according to the investigating committee, the arson and destruction of the Trade Unions House were committed by the Alfa special detachment of the Ukrainian Security Service, fighters of whom got into the building from the side of the hotel on Khreschatyk Street.
The MP said that the goal of the antiterrorist operation “Boomerang” was not only to clean up Euromaidan but to eliminate the opposition HQ and all of the resources in the Trade Union House as well. According to the verified information, several people were shot dead during the arson. Their bodies might have been completely burned, reported Moskal.
He also appealed to the Prosecutor General to immediately create an operational-investigations group with the involvement of scientific-research forensic institutes and to fully examine the burnt out Trade Union House in order to find napalm used by Alfa during the arson, more material evidence, and human remains with bullet wounds.
Moskal also demands that all Alfa documentation be confiscated and the location of the fighters during the arson of the Trade Union House be established.
The MP demands the confiscation of all the special detachment documentation, establishing all the snipers’ locations on Feb. 20, a voice identification analysis of those involved in the radio communications, and the resignation of the commander Shuliak for the time of the investigation.
In addition according to the documents in possession of the investigating committee, the direct command of Berkut riot police on December 1 on Bankova Street was assumed by Deputy Interior Minster Viktor Ratushniak – he was the one to order the break-up of the peaceful protests.
Former Chief of Ukrainian Security Service Ihor Kalinin personally coordinated all the so-called “titushky” (thugs hired by the government).
Moskal demands that the Prosecutor General open a criminal proceeding, Ratushniak be suspended and all the Berkut units involved in torturing protesters and in destroying the Trade Unions House be identified and brought to trial.
