Hundreds of rifles and ammunition were given to groups of thugs paid by ex-President Viktor Yanukovych's regime to attack activists during one of the bloodiest days of the EuroMaidan Revolution on Feb. 20, 2014, prosecutors say.
“Nearly 600 5.45mm Kalashnikov rifles and about 190,000 cartridges were issued (at that time). At least 408 rifles and around 90,000 cartridges were handed directly to the titushki,” Serhiy Horbatyuk, who heads the Special Investigations Department at Prosecutor General’s Office, said in Kyiv on Jan. 23, using a term that describes hired thugs wearing track suits.
According to Horbatyuk, the decision to give weapons to “titushki” was approved by the country’s leadership and backed by the Interior Ministry. At least 49 activists were killed in Kyiv that day.
Some of the weapons have been found, Horbatyuk said during the briefing in Kyiv, while the whereabouts of the bigger part of supplied weapons “is still unknown.”
Some 12 individuals are charged with the crime of giving weapons out to use against peaceful protesters, according to Horbatyuk. At least four of them are in custody, while the remainder are on a wanted list. Three of the detainees are former police officers, the chief of the department, an inspector, and a technician, according to the investigation.
Others include former Interior Minister of Ukraine Vitaliy Zakharchenko, ex-chief of the Kyiv Police Valeriy Mazan, and the head of logistics. All of them are on a wanted list.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has completed its investigation and passed all findings to the Kyiv city court. The preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 26.
Two years after Yanukovych fled Ukraine, little has been done to bring the perpetrators of violence to justice. Over the course of 2015, a number of international organizations, including Amnesty International together with the Council of Europe’s International Advisory Group and the United Nation’s Commission on Human Rights, criticized Ukraine’s lack of progress on the killings and violence during the 94 days of the revolution.
Earlier, Horbatyuk admitted that the Prosecutor General’s Office hadn’t yet put anyone in jail for persecution of the EuroMaidan protesters that resulted in at least 104 civilian casualties. On Nov. 17, he said that some 270 criminal cases have been opened. Prosecutors are investigating 2,000 crimes involving 2,200 victims.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].
