Ukraine Accuses Yanukovych of Ordering Troops to Shoot Protesters
Ukrainian investigators have accused former President Viktor Yanukovych of ordering security forces to open fire on protesters in February, killing dozens. Yanukovych has denied the claims. Photo: Associated Press.
Ukrainian investigators accused former President
Viktor Yanukovych
and his allies, including Russia’s security service, of involvement in planning and directing the killings of dozens of antigovernment protesters before he was ousted in late February.
In preliminary findings presented Thursday, Ukraine’s top security and law-enforcement officials described state-directed violence that culminated in mid-February, when armed police and special security service units used Kalashnikovs and sniper rifles to cut down protesters who camped for three months on and around the capital’s main square.
The presentation was the first major official insight into the bloodiest violence in the two decades of Ukraine’s independence. The bloodshed, which peaked Feb. 18-20, led to Moscow-backed Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster days later.
Mr. Yanukovych, who was voted out by Parliament and fled to Russia, said in a television interview Wednesday that he didn’t give any order to open fire.
Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych gestures during an interview in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on Wednesday.
Associated Press
The main phase of killing began Feb. 18, when riot police, supported by elite security service units, moved to clear the square that was the hub of three months of pro-Europe demonstrations. Protests began late last year after Mr. Yanukovych shelved a partnership deal with the European Union In favor of closer ties with Russia.
After a day of street clashes, police were given the green light for an assault on the square at 11 p.m., Ukraine security service chief
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko
said Thursday.
“In the guise of an antiterror operation, the planned mass-killing of people occurred under the direct leadership of former President Yanukovych,” said Mr. Nalyvaichenko.
Officials said top allies, including then-Interior Minister
Vitaliy Zakharchenko
and former security-service chief
Oleksandr Yakymenko,
gave the order for the armed attack. Mr. Yakymenko, in a recent Russian TV interview, alleged that protest leaders had hired snipers to shoot at both sides. Mr. Zakharchenko, whose whereabouts are unknown, couldn’t be reached for comment.
As riot police pushed protesters back from barricades and into the square, around 100 armed agents from the security service, known as the SBU, stormed the building that had served as protesters’ headquarters from the roof. They may have been forced to retreat by demonstrators setting fire to the building, officials said. Government-hired thugs were also armed and ordered to shoot at protesters, officials said.
After a brief truce, snipers two days later shot protesters advancing behind makeshift wooden shields as riot police retreated. Officials showed a video shot from a nearby building that show men in black uniforms and helmets firing what appear to be automatic weapons at protesters advancing up a slope leading from the square.
Interior Minister
Arsen Avakov
said one weapon had fired bullets causing eight deaths.
Authorities said they have detained 12 people involved in the killings from the Berkut, a special police unit whose name means “golden eagle.” Some members of the now-disbanded unit have fled to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Russia annexed in March, officials said.
Mr. Nalyvaichenko said members of Russia’s FSB security service that visited Kyiv during the protests could have been involved in planning and carrying out the violence. He also said a shipment of explosives and weapons had arrived from Russia in January.
A spokesman for the FSB told the RIA state news agency: “Let these statements remain on the conscience of the Ukrainian security service.”
Russian officials have alleged that protest leaders arranged the shooting of demonstrators by snipers to discredit authorities.
In a separate development late Thursday, the FSB told RIA it had detained 25 Ukrainians it alleges were planning to carry out acts of terrorism in Russia.
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com