By the first anniversary of EuroMaidan Revolution, Ukraine’s police and prosecutors still have not delivered on the killings of hundreds of civilians by the government that had been ousted.
Anton Heraschenko, an adviser to the interior minister, said the police has figured out that the administration of fugitive President Viktor Yanukovuch worked out a plan of kidnapping, intimidation and killing of EuroMaidan activists. Along with Yanukovych’s son Oleksandr, officials from his administration allegedly teamed up with former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko to commit the crimes. Zakharchenko’s deputy ministers Viktor Dubovyk and Viktor Ratushnyak were also allegedly involved.
“We have all the evidence now that they are responsible for these crimes,” Heraschenko said during a news conference in Kyiv on Nov. 18.
Oleksandr Yanukovych was quick to respond to the accusations the same night, calling them “false” in a statement and saying he had nothing to do with mass killing and kidnappings of EuroMaidan activists in Kyiv.
“If Oleksandr Yanukovych said he was not involved in the crimes against the Revolution of Dignity participants, let’s get him to tell us what he did do in the last days before the shootings (of protesters in February), whom he called and what instructions did he give,” Herashchenko shot back in his Facebook.
Herashchenko said that the police have finished investigating the assault on activist and former journalist Tetiana Chornovol who was beaten in the early hours of Dec. 25. He alleged it was done by Yanukovych’s order. Three people already have been summoned to court, three more of her attackers are wanted.
Herashchenko said at least one of those was detained in Russia, but “they ignore Ukraine and don’t extradite the criminals.”
The minister’s adviser also reported that the police have finished investigating the killing of Yuriy Verbytsky, a EuroMaidan protester who was abducted together with activist turned politician Ihor Lutsenko on Jan. 21. Later that day Lutsenko wrote on his Facebook page that he had been freed by his captors. Verbytsky was found dead in Boryspil, a suburb of Kyiv two days later, on Jan. 23.
“Those people who kidnapped the protesters were those from former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko inner circle,” Herashchenko said. At least 11 people were suspected of committing the crime; two of them are detained, while other nine suspects are on Interpol wanted list.
The ministry also reported on successful investigation of another EuroMaidan Revolution fallen, Vyacheslav Veremiy, who was killed in Kyiv early on Feb. 18 on his way home at night in a taxi. He was severely beaten and then shot by a group of thugs.
Earlier the prosecutor’s office said one of the Veremiy attackers was 41-year-old athlete Yuriy Krysin, a native of Donetsk Oblast. He has been detained while other seven suspects fled to Russia and other neighboring countries, Herashchenko added.
The investigation of the mass killings of protesters and police on Instytutska St. in Kyiv on Feb. 20 is still underway. Herashchenko said they have identified 16 members of former Berkut riot police unit, who were suspected in the crime. Most of them fled to Crimea and neighboring Russia.
During the bloody days on Feb. 18-21 some 71 activists and 15 police officers were killed in Kyiv.
Another suspect, Dmytro Sadovnyk, the head of Berkut police unit, was arrested in connection with the organizing mass killings on Feb. 18-20. However, later Pechersky district court in Kyiv decided to keep Sadovnyk under house arrest, and he was released from the court room. He fled the country on Oct. 3 and is wanted now.
In a written response to the Kyiv Post the Prosecutor’s office said they have been investigating the case against the Pechersky district court judge Svitlana Volkova, but have no results to report yet.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]
