How former Berkut officers escaped justice for EuroMaidan (timeline)

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Feb. 25, 2014, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov disbands the Berkut riot police unit. It included almost 4,000 officers.

April 4, 2014, Avakov says in an interview with the Fifth Channel that the police arrested 13 former Berkut officers for EuroMaidan killings. He says that 67 former Berkut officers, including Berkut chief Serhiy Kusiuk, are hiding in Russian-annexed Crimea.

July 2014, 16 former Berkut officers leave Ukraine just before their arrest is planned, according to Roman Maselko, a lawyer for EuroMaidan protesters.

Sept. 19, 2014, Pechersk Court Judge Svitlana Volkova releases Dmytro Sadovnyk, head of Berkut’s special Black Company, charged with 39 murders of EuroMaidan protesters, from detention. Soon after that, Sadovnyk violates his house arrest and escapes to Russia.

Volkova was fired by the Verkhovna Rada in 2016 for violating judicial ethics in the Sadovnyk case but the Supreme Court reinstated her as a judge in October 2019. Vitaly Tytych, a lawyer for EuroMaidan protesters, says she was unlawfully allowed to issue rulings again despite the fact that the Supreme Court ruling has not yet taken effect due to an appeal. The Pechersk Court and the Supreme Court did not respond to requests for comment.

At the same time, Volkova is still on trial on charges of unlawfully releasing Sadovnyk.

Feb. 23, 2015, the Prosecutor General’s Office charges 20 former Berkut officers with EuroMaidan murders. Only two of them, Pavlo Abroskin and Serhiy Zinchenko, were arrested, while 18 were hiding in Russia.

June 28, 2015, a court arrests Oleh Yanishevsky, a former deputy head of Berkut’s Black Company.

April 13, 2017, four former Berkut police officers from Kharkiv, who are under investigation for beating and killing EuroMaidan protesters, leave to Russia by bus, according to their lawyer.

Aug. 30, 2018, a court acquits Andriy Khandrykin, a former Berkut officer charged with beating EuroMaidan protesters in January 2014. Prosecutors demanded a prison term of eight years for him.

Nov. 27, 2019, a court releases from a detention facility Viktor Shapovalov, former head of Berkut police in Kharkiv, who is charged with abuse of power against protesters during street riots on Feb. 18, 2014. Shapovalov stays under nighttime house arrest.

Dec. 28, 2019, a court releases five former Berkut officers who are on trial for murdering protesters on Feb. 20, 2014. On the next day, Ukraine exchanges them for Ukrainians kept by Russian-backed militants in the Donbas.