Four former members of the Berkut special police regiment have fled to Russia, according to a video published on April 14. The former troopers were accused of killing and torturing Euromaidan Revolution protesters in 2014, just before ex-President Viktor Yanukovych fled power.
The four ex-Berkut officers — Vitaly Honcharenko, Oleksandr Kostyuk, Vladislav Masteha, and Artem Voilokov — recorded and published a video in which they reveal that they fled to Russia, because they “understood that it’s dangerous for them to stay in Ukraine.”
The former Berkut members had pleaded not guilty, claiming that they were carrying out their ‘”constitutional duty: during the 100-day EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014 and complained about bias from the prosecution.
All four men fled shortly after Honcharenko was released from police custody on April 6 after an appeals court ruled that he be freed. Honcharenko was accused of killing three people on Feb. 18, 2014 along with another former Berkut member, Oleksandr Belov.
Honcharenko and three other Berkut officers were detained in June in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where they were working in the local police department. Although Honcharenko was suspected of committing the murders along with Belov, he was the only one out of the four who remained in custody before the group fled Ukraine.
Masteha and Voilokov are suspected of torturing protesters near the column-lined entrance to Kyiv’s “Dynamo” soccer stadium on Jan. 19, 2014.
Honcharenko and Kostyuk were separately accused of assaulting journalist and human rights activist Kostyantin Reutsky, who was on his way back to Kyiv from eastern Ukraine on Jan. 29, 2015.
Honcharenko’s lawyer Valentin Rybin told Censor.net news website that the three ex-Berkut members, not including Honcharenko, left the country freely because there was no court order saying otherwise.
According to Rybin, Kostyuk’s restraining order expired in March, and Masteha and Voilokov were under house arrest until April 13. The court failed to renew their restraining orders on April 15, allowing them to go free.
The court had previously released Honcharenko from jail and placed him under house arrest on Feb. 4, but after 60 days detained him again.
This is not the first case of former Berkut officers fleeing to Russia: Dmytro Sadovnyk , a commander of a Berkut unit accused of killing 39 activists during the EuroMaidan protests, was released on Sept. 19, 2014 after spending five months in custody. He then fled to Russia.
Three years after EuroMaidan, only one person is serving a sentence for crimes against the EuroMaidan protesters. The rest of the 35 people convicted for EuroMaidan crimes so far have either been given fines or suspended sentences while another 185 suspects await trial.
