Yanukovych was ready to resort to murder to stop Euromaidan – PGO

The team of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych planned to stop the Maidan activists in early 2014 at any price, even by murdering them.

This was stated by Head of the Special Investigations Department at the PGO Serhiy Horbatiuk, the Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) online newspaper reports.

According to him, the former government did not make peaceful steps but developed a plan to terminate the Revolution of Dignity.

Reportedly, the opposition in the morning of February 18, 2014 and storming of Maidan in the evening were the points of that plan. A large number of law enforcement officers and armed hired thugs were involved for the time of holding a march to the Verkhovna Rada during which the activists demanded to narrow the powers of the president.

According to Serhiy Horbatiuk, the representatives of the Interior Ministry, in particular, the Berkut riot police force officers and the internal troops officers, were illegally armed with hunting ammunition. “It was used in the pump-action guns which should have been applied by the police, though they had to use rubber bullets,” he said.

“The enhanced riot control weapons, delivered from Russia illegally and without examination, were also provided for arming. Some of them, according to the expert examination, contained extremely harmful substances. These substances are used in no riot control weapons in any world country. As of February 18, such weapons as flash bang grenades and gas grenades were given to law enforcement officers,” Horbatiuk said.

“Thus, the plan provided for a maximum use of violence against the protesters, not neglecting gunshot wounds and deaths, so that the protesters would be forced to defend their life and health…” the representative of the PGO said.

According to the investigators, it would also be an excuse for a new anti-terrorist operation, which would result in the ultimate crackdown on Maidan. That is, they planned to complete the crackdown on that day despite possible casualties.

According to the PGO, the brutal violence against the protesters on February 18, 2014 killed ten people and injured more than 500 activists, including over 100 of them who were seriously injured.

The prohibited firearms with hunting ammunition were used, Horbatiuk noted. “That ammunition killed three people and wounded more than 40 activists,” he said.

The hired thugs in coordination with the Berkut officers and the internal troops servicemen used violence against the Maidan activists.

The protesters were defending, and, therefore, the police officers were being inflicted injuries, giving “imaginary reasons” for the special-forces raid and crackdown on Maidan overnight into February 19, Horbatiuk said.

The investigation believes that there were no grounds for the anti-terrorist operation then.

Sixteen people were killed and over two hundred people were injured as a result of storming of Maidan and the attempt to seize the House of Trade Unions by the Alpha special force officers. Two people were killed in the House of Trade Unions, another two people were killed in Volodymyrska Street as a result of actions of hired thugs. Other victims were killed during the storming of Maidan.

According to Horbatiuk, the investigation concluded that the government acted as a criminal organization and this is reflected in suspicions. So, the then President Yanukovych and former heads of law enforcement agencies were declared suspects.