At the trial on the Maidan case an ex-Berkut officer testified against colleagues

On Monday, October 3, an ex-Berkut officer from Kharkiv Victor Shapovalov admitted guilty in the Podil district court of Kyiv. He apologized and told the names of his former colleagues, who received lead bullets instead of rubber bullets.

This is informed by the “Channel 5”.

 “I want to mention that pump guns were received by the personnel: Bondarenko Serhiy, Rak, Mishchenko, Voitenko, Bilov. This is the personnel who had pump guns. Also Batskikh, Biletskyi, Kobets, Matsiura, Pavlenko, Robko, Shevchenko. Lukash managed personnel with “Forts” (a rifle – author). “Forts, go ahead!” – that was him”, – told ex-policemen.

A defendant said that he saw how “Berkut” beat people with sticks on Kriposnyi lane, but he did nothing. He also did not react when officers shooted.

“Shapovalov is accused of abuse of office when he was a unit commander. We think that “Berkut” officers from Kharkiv  inflicted different types of injuries for 110 people”, – said prosecutor Oleksandr Kovalchuk.

Shapoval told how different groups of officers could recognize themselves in February 2014. He said that they pasted special stickers on the back of the helmets. Lawyers say that this would help ti recognize others involved in the shootings.

“This is very important because there are almost no other ways how to identify “Berkut” officers – they were in masks, visors of the helmets were closed. It is very hard to identify their faces”, – explained Oleksandr Musienko, a victims’ lawyer, a member of the “Advocacy  Advisory Panel”.

A prosecutor believes that the testimony of Shapoval is very important. He testifies against other officers which may help in the investigation. In particuler, it concerns the head of “Berkut” from Kharkiv Vladislav Lukash, who is accused of abuse of office.