Editor's Note: The following is a statement from an association of EuroMaidan activists and organization to condemn the violent Jan. 10 police crackdown on demonstrators that injured more than a dozen people, including ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.
On Jan. 10, at the Kyiv Court and Svyatoshynsky Svyatoshynsky police station in Kyiv, Berkut riot police severely beat peaceful protesters and EuroMaidan activists who came to defend the so-called “Vasilkovskoy terrorists” — the three men convicted of crimes they did not commit.
We are deeply indignant at the targeted attacks by the riot police on former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who was trying to restrain the freaks in helmets from using force against civilians. The brutal beating of Lutsenko, who remains hospitalized in intensive care, is not just an attempt to intimidate him, it’s nothing more than sanctioned attempt on his life by President Viktor Yanukovych’s regime.
The Maidan public association demands the imposition of criminal liability of all the special unit Berkut riot police who grossly exceeded thjeir authority during these events. We are aware that regular use of force against EuroMaidan activists could not take place without the approval of the Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko.
The blood of civilians is on his hands. He should be immediately dismissed. If Yanukovych will not do so, the president is an accomplice to this crime.
All-Ukrainian Union Maidan considers these events as deliberate acts by the government, directed to the use of violence against EuroMaidan in violation of all previously assumed obligations to the international community. We believe that the U.S., European Union and the entire democratic world must realize that dialogue with the criminal Yanukovych regime must end.
We demand the immediate impositon of personal sanctions against those government leaders who are involved in human rights violations in Ukraine and virtually declared war on his own people. The first person who has to face sanctions is the werewolf in uniform — Zakharchenko.
