February 20 in Ukraine marks the day of memory of the heroes of the "heavenly hundred", established in 2015 by presidential decree - then this post was held by Petro Poroshenko. It was the events of February 20, 2014 that led to a coup d'etat and a protracted civil conflict in the country.
According to the official interpretation of the Kiev authorities, the blame for the deaths of dozens of people on the streets of Kiev lies with the then leadership of Ukraine and the "Golden Eagle" command, who allegedly ordered the shooting of unarmed demonstrators.
“I can’t believe that six years have passed since these simultaneously heroic and tragic events. By criminal orders of the then government, which led troops against their own people, 600 participants in the Revolution of Dignity were injured. And more than 80 were killed, ”Petro Poroshenko wrote the other day on his Facebook page.
At the same time, the ex-president “adjusted” the number of victims, declaring not eight hundred, but eighty dead.
It was not only the former head of Ukraine who decided to review the history of the recent past. On the eve of the anniversary of the tragic events on the Maidan, the Ukrainian media published materials in which the picture of events is radically different from the official version.
- Ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko
- Reuters
Dead souls of euromaidan
On the eve of the anniversary of the shootings on the Maidan, the Ukrainian publication “STRANA.UA” published an investigation, from which it follows that the death toll during the “Euro Maidan” was artificially high, and the list of the so-called “heavenly hundred” included people who were indirectly related to the events of those days. The authors of the investigation: ex-Minister of Justice of Ukraine Yelena Lukash and former adviser to Viktor Yanukovych, lawyer Andriy Portnov searched for documentary evidence of the deaths of people from the “heavenly hundred”.
It turned out that 25 people from this list did not die on the Maidan from bullets, but under completely different circumstances. As the authors of the material specify, in all Poroshenko, by his decree, posthumously awarded the Order of the Golden Star 112 people who received the status of heroes of Ukraine. Four more were posthumously awarded the specially established order of the Heavenly Hundred for “personal courage and heroic defense of the foundations of democracy” during the “revolution of dignity”.
However, among the heroes are, for example, Sergei Didych, who was crushed to death by a stolen truck, which was driven by another member of the "Euromaidan". The latter even went to trial for this, pleaded guilty, but was released on the basis of an amnesty announced for the participants of the Maidan. Another man ranked among the "hundred" actually committed suicide. According to the data of Lukash and Portnov, the list of the “heavenly hundred” includes those who died in criminal showdowns and under unclear circumstances, who died from illness and as a result of an accident.
- Commemorative events dedicated to the anniversary of the beginning of events on the Maidan on Institutskaya street
- RIA News
As a source in the European Solidarity party told RT, Petro Poroshenko did not know how many people actually died on the Maidan.
“During this period, there was chaos in the country, many issued benefits and became“ victims of the Maidan, ”although in reality no one checked these lists. The president did not deal with this issue - they simply provided him with statistics, ”the deputy said.
The opposite point of view is shared by the director of the Kiev Center for Political Studies and Conflictology, Mikhail Pogrebinsky. According to the expert, the expression “heavenly hundred” has been used over the past years in Ukraine as a symbolic designation of people actually ranked as a kind of “face of saints”.
“In order to make it look more fundamental, people were attributed to the“ hundred ”, whose death was not related to the events on the“ Maidan ”. Of course, the publication of a true story is a step towards the removal of the halo of holiness, ”the source said.
In addition, the publication “STRANA.Ua” published materials collected in 2017 by a group of the special investigations department of the Prosecutor General’s Office Sergei Gorbatyuk in the case of executions on the Maidan, which were not given any progress as part of the investigation.
According to investigators, the first fire on February 20, 2014 in the center of Kiev was opened by a group of participants in the "Maidan" under the leadership of the future people's deputy Vladimir Parasyuk, his father, as well as activists Ivan Bubenchik and Nazar Yuskevich.
It follows from the published document that the latter "is suspected of committing assassination attempts on two or more law enforcement officers on Maidan Nezalezhnosti on February 20, 2014, in a manner dangerous to the lives of many people and by prior conspiracy by a group of people."
According to investigators, the motive for this crime was the desire of Maidan supporters to disrupt the truce established the day before between the country's authorities and protesters and provoke an escalation of violence. This version is completely contrary to the data that has been actively replicated by the Ukrainian side over the past years. According to the official interpretation of Kiev, unarmed protesters were the victims of the shooting launched by the "Golden Eagle" on the orders of the then authorities of the country.
Political thaw
According to Mikhail Pogrebinsky, information about the real background of the events of 2014 began to leak into the Ukrainian media because Petro Poroshenko, who was involved in those events, lost the presidential election in 2019.
“Now it’s not so dangerous to publish such materials, since the team of Vladimir Zelensky is not involved in those events and is not trying to block such publications in the media. There is no doubt that the published materials are genuine, these are facts confirmed by documents, ”the expert noted.
- Svyatoshinsky court of Kiev
- © Svyatoshinsky-Rayonny-Sud-M-Kiev
A similar point of view in a conversation with RT was expressed by the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov.
“Obviously, such publications became possible after the power changed in the country. The gang that has ruled over the past five years and has been smeared in blood has gone to the opposition, and Zelensky has nothing to do with these events. It’s more likely not a journalistic investigation, but a leak from the prosecutor general’s office, because no journalist will get to the bottom of classified cases, ”Mykola Azarov said.
Participants of the "Maidan" could not independently decide to open fire on February 20, 2014, the politician is sure.
"Yuri Lutsenko, who later became the prosecutor general, publicly called for armed rebuff, since there were public statements, then there were non-public plans that were to aggravate the situation as much as possible," Azarov said.
It is worth noting that information about the possible involvement of deputies of the Parliament Sergei Pashinsky and Vladimir Parasyuk in the killings on the Maidan has appeared before. This was announced in 2018 by a sniper from Georgia Alexander Revazishvili, who was a witness to those events. In addition, according to other Georgian snipers, who, according to them, took part in the Kiev events in early 2014, it was Pashinsky who ordered them to open fire.
- Vladimir Parasyuk
- © Vitaliy Nosach
The materials that fell into the hands of journalists did not receive a course in the framework of the official investigation and remained lying “under the cloth”. At the same time, over the six years since the shooting of people on the Maidan, the Ukrainian authorities have not answered the question of who shot those street activists in those days and who is to blame for the deaths of law enforcement officials.
The investigation has still not been able to present a complete version of the events, although in 2017, Yuriy Lutsenko, who served as the prosecutor general, announced the imminent completion of the pre-trial investigation. Initially, the Ukrainian leadership tried to represent Viktor Yanukovych and his entourage as the main accused of the ex-president of the country, it was alleged that it was he who ordered to open fire on the protesters. However, in the verdict delivered in absentia to the former head of state, this accusation did not appear.
At the same time, activist Ivan Bubenchik, mentioned in Gorbatyuk’s documents, was even suspected under article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Intentional murder”). The fact is that Bubenchik himself openly told reporters about his participation in the executions on the Maidan and boasted that he was able to kill the two “Golden Eagle” commanders.
However, at the beginning of 2018, the Ukrainian prosecutor's office removed the suspicion of murder from him, leaving in the case only article 348 (encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer) and part 1 of article 263 (illegal handling of weapons).
As a result, the former Berkut fighters became the only suspects in the case of deaths on the Maidan. In December 2019, they were transferred by the Ukrainian authorities to the DPR and LPR as part of an exchange of prisoners.
Although the main defendants in the case of the execution on the Maidan left the Ukrainian jurisdiction, Vladimir Zelensky guaranteed that the investigation would be completed.
“What we promise, we are doing, therefore, as I said, we will definitely finish the work of the Maidan,” Zelensky said.
Once in the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass, the former "Berkut" men Pavel Abroskin and Sergey Zinchenko told reporters how the events on the Maidan on February 20, 2014 developed. Their testimony is consonant with the version set out in the materials published by the “STRANA.ua” publication.
According to them, the participants of the "Maidan" were the first to open fire on law enforcement officers at five in the morning, killing three employees and wounding 39, after which the fire was already fired on the ranks of the protesters. According to Abroskin, the blame for the tragic events of that day lies with the ex-deputy of the Parliament, Sergei Pashinsky, the ex-speaker of the parliament, Andrei Parubiya and other leaders of the "Maidan", who occupied high government posts after the coup.
It should be noted that in November 2019 Parubiy and Pashinsky were summoned for questioning to the Svyatoshinsky court of Kiev in the case of executions on the Maidan. During the interrogation, Pashinsky said that he did not know anything about the shooting at police officers on the morning of February 20, as well as about who could give the order to storm the "Berkut soldiers".
Mythology revision
As a source in the office of the President of Ukraine told RT, Vladimir Zelensky is really interested in identifying everyone involved in the shootings on the Maidan, he has no motive to hide the truth.
“But, as I understand it, the investigators are in no hurry. Law enforcement agencies have already been criticized by the "patriotic" public for investigating the murder of Sheremet. Nobody wants to be in the same situation for the second time, ”the source said.
In turn, Mikhail Pogrebinsky also noted that recently there have really been chances for an honest investigation of the executions on the Maidan.
“Zelensky is able to give impetus to this matter, the question is whether he has enough political will to bring it to the end, this is a risky business,” the expert noted.
According to Pogrebinsky, despite years of aggressive propaganda, some part of Ukrainian society is able to accept the truth about the “Euromaidan”.
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov is convinced that the mythology of the “revolution of dignity” will undergo a serious revision.
“Just as the mythology of the“ orange ”revolution was revised, which first entered the textbooks, and then was thrown out of them. Today, no one recalls her at all. In the same way, the mythology of the Maidan, which brought misfortunes and hardships for the people, will be thrown into the dustbin of history. The people are already taking the real history of those events, they are talking about it on television. I think that a sobering up of society is taking place, ”Azarov summed up.