A detailed timeline of the events of February 18-20, 2014 when the Hundred of Heaven were murdered. We have thoroughly reconstructed the fights and marked the death places of the heroes.
On the 63-th day of the protest the Yanukovych government started killing Ukrainians, mostly with firearms.
On January 22 Ukraine celebrates the Unity Day, a celebration of consolidating different historical regions into one state. In the early hours of the festive day three unarmed protesters got fatal gunshot wounds - Serhiy NIHOYAN from Dnipropetrovsk oblast, Mykhaylo ZHYZNEVSKYY (a Belarusian emigrant) from Kyiv oblast and Roman SENYK from Halychyna.
The mass murder on the Kyiv streets would break out in 27 days.
This is a story about the people who were killed during the protests in the centre of Kyiv during February 18-20, 2014. No matter on which side of the barricades they parted with life.
It should be emphasized that our material is neither an investigation nor an attempt to deliver a judgment before the completion of the judicial proceedings.
First we should arrange all available information about the circumstances of death of those people: who, when, where, and how got a fatal wound?
To do this, we turned to three groups of sources:
But the DATA available as of the beginning of March 2017 DO NOT PROVIDE THE ENTIRE COMPREHENSIVE information. So we had to make assumptions, especially regarding the deaths on February 18-19. This task is still very far from completion.
Special Investigation Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine will need another several months, if not years, to find out all the details of the tragic events that occurred during the final days of mass protests. We will also assist in search, updating this project with every fact found. We would appreciate any help in establishing the truth.
The day before the cessation of actions was established. The protesters leave the premises of Kyiv City Council and partially deblock Hrushevskoho street, opening a way through the rows of barricades. Until February 18 all large-scale violence episodes during the street protests in Kyiv occurred on these barricades.
The political opposition hopes that a part of the Party of Regions faction would support the idea to limit the power of Yanukovych by reinstatement of the Constitution of 2004.
For the pressure on Parliament in the morning of February 18, 2014 the «peaceful offensive» goes to the Verkhovna Rada.
The march participants are far from being in peaceful mood - three months have passed since the beginning of the protests, and the government still has not responded to any demand of Maidan.
The events of that day are still the least investigated. This is especially true concerning the geography of violence in the government quarter — the data available today contain no specific addresses, but only the «Mariyinskyi park» or «Instytutska street.»
In such cases we have determined the APPROXIMATE PLACE of getting fatal wounds with appropriate comments in the description. We based our research on the general chronology of clashes, time of death (finding of a body) and nature of injuries.
Event times are approximate.
At Maidan columns of demonstrators are formed. They are defended by the fighters of the Self-Defense («Samooborona») having protective gear (helmets, body armor, shields) and sticks to withstand a possible attack of security forces.
At the same time at Parkova drive since 8 a.m. the Antimaidan mass meeting participants get off the buses. The people brought here are mostly the public sector employees, but there are also some strong athletes.
Verkhovna Rada and a part of the Mariyinskyi park is surrounded by four lines of Internal Troops and the «Berkut».
The day before some «Berkut» soldiers get combat ammunition instead of non-letal ones. This fact is proved by the court testimony by a soldier of Kharkiv «Berkut» Squadron, Shapovalov. The same kind of ammunition will be provided again on February 18 in the evening near Zhovtnevyy Palalce.
The bullets with lead canister shot are given without restriction and not recorded in any documents. A police officer who organized the issuance of these bullets to the personnel deliberately aimed to kill people.
09:30A column of protesters marches through Instytutska and Kriposnyy lane to Hrushevskoho street. They drive away the KamAZ trucks which were blocking the way. Clashes are minimal. Some protesters are trying to break through the security lines to Verkhovna Rada.
In the office of the Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr Rybak unsuccessful negotiations continue on voting concerning the law on the Constitution 2004.
10:10At the intersection of Instytutska and Sadova street, the police with «Fort» guns started maiming people shooting traumatic ammunition and throwing concussion grenades directly into the crowd.
Demonstrators set on fire the KamAZ trucks blocking Sadova. Then some soldiers from Internal Troops surrender to their opponents. The Self-Defense protects them from the angry crowd. Clashes continue until lunchtime.
10:30There are several thousands of protesters gathered in Mariyinskyi park. They surround Antimaidan from three sides, from Hrushevskoho to the Dnipro slopes, fulfilling a plan to block Verkhovna Rada -- until the «Regions» and the Communists join the voting for the Constitution-2004.
The most efficient Self-Defense hundreds are concentrated there. First they have been leading the march, and now they are patrolling the perimeter — going to the corners of the park farthest from Hrushevskoho.
A column of security officials moved from Rada to Shovkovychna. They carried green boxes with some ammunition. Obviously, these were Russian "enhanced special means", significantly more powerful than their Ukrainian analogues.
Over two months of confrontation the «Berkut» used so many grenades that the MIA had to procure more from Russia, spending the total amount of UAH 1.2 million.
On the January 21, An-12 aircraft which departed from a military airfield near Moscow landed in the Zhulyany airport. According to the delivery note from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs it carried more than 6,000 units of special means: concussion grenades "Fakel-S", "Zarya-2" and «Plamya-M", aerosol and smoke grenades, irritating grenades "RGR" - ordinary and the «enhanced» ones.
But this was not enough, as MIA extensively used the new grenades during clashes on Hrushevskoho. On January 24 An-12 makes another flight to Moscow. The second batch of special means - more than 7,300 units - lands in Gostomel.
In accompanying documents these items were listed as the «humanitarian aid.»
New grenades are authorized for use by the police without any examination by the Ministry of Health, although their sound and effect is much more powerful than of those the soldiers of the «Berkut» used on November 30 and December 1.
The security officers further enhance the already enhanced effect of special means, taping improvised «fragmentation elements» - fastening nails, screws or other small metal objects - to the grenades.
Clashes near Verkhovna Rada begin. Massive explosions of concussion grenades are evidenced.
According to the Head of the Special Investigation Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine Sergiy Horbatyuk, from 11 o'clock that day combat weapons were again used on the streets of Kyiv.
Only demonstrators got the first gunshot wounds. No security officers were found among those injured at that time.
While peaceful march continued, the «Berkut» soldiers were hiding in the yards. Some of them accessed the roofs. They targetedly fired their "Forts". They threw down concussion grenades directly amid the crowds of people.
11:20The «Berkut» soldiers who tried to attack Shovkovychna were chased away with stones. The majority of people doing it were not the trained fighters of the Self-Defense, but mostly the ordinary «civilians». However, they braced up a fierce resistance, even though a month ago they considered similar actions of «extremists» on Hrushevskoho a provocation.
One of Maidan leaders led some part of protesters from Instytutska to the central office of the Party of Regions (Lypska street, 10).
~11:25Having broken the door, the protesters kicked the employees out of the office and seized the Party documents. Subsequently, these documents would help investigate the crimes of the regime. The ground floor and the basement of the house were set on fire from the «Molotov cocktail».
Apparently, around that time the 65-year-old man from Kyiv, Volodymyr ZAKHAROV died in the fire. He worked as an IT support specialist in the building where the Party of Regions office was located. His daughter-in-law Victoria cited the official information from physicians: «The autopsy showed no signs of blows or violence, he just died of suffocation ...»
The investigation confirmed that the body of the deceased had no signs of violent death. Zakharov suffocated due to carbon monoxide concentration, staying for too long in the smoky room to save at least some hardware from the workplaces of the office workers.
Should this victim be among the Hundred of Heaven? Wikipedia includes him and the memorial photo of Zakharov can be found at the Instytutska. He remained in office when all others fled. He fell another victim of the grandiose and tragic events, and also deserves being remembered.
The death of Zakharov is connected with the violent events, but is not actually a homicide, unlike most of the deaths described here.
Meanwhile, in the Mariyinskyi park Antimaidan hurls stones at the Self-Defense from behind the police line.
Here in the Antimaidan camp the battle groups are formed from the «Titushky» (mercenary thugs) (and possibly other supporters of Yanukovych). They obtain shields with the inscription "Police", Soviet-style iron helmets, sticks and pipes.
The «Titushky» equipped like the Self-Defense and acting in close coordination with the «Berkut» are a know-how of the regime.
Around noon real street battles break out. The Self-Defense manages to push Internal Troops back several dozens of meters into the Antimaidan camp. Internal troops leave behind them fence shields which protesters are trying to use for defense perimeter.
Members of Parliament from the Party of Regions start fleeing from the session room. The number of injured is growing rapidly. Stones, «Molotovs» and Russian concussion grenades «enhanced» with tape and nails are hurled at protesters. One of the commanders of the Self-Defense has his hand torn off with such a grenade.
Demonstrators organize a hospital for the wounded in the House of Officers (on the corner of Hrushevskoho and Kriposnyy lane).
During this time Antimaidan is preparing for a counterattack. To help the fighters distinguish «their» people from similarly-equipped Self-Defense they use the identification marks - white and red armbands. These colours can hardly have any ideological meaning, the tape is simply the cut pieces of plastic signal tape which police typically uses to enclose a crime scene. The «committed» fighters with fascism from the opposition also wear St.George’s Ribbon.
Yanukovych's supporters do not use the colors of the national flag of Ukraine at all, while the clothes of protesters is so richly decorated with them.
Hiding behind the lines of the Internal Troops, Antimaidan members wearing helmets and using sticks pluck stones out of the pedestrian pavements and bring them closer to a possible place of clashes. The «Supporters of current President" are divided into groups, managed by coordinators who tell them what to do.
From the stage of Antimaidan Soviet war songs are played very loudly all the time and calls are heard to destroy the monsters-Nazis.
13:00Around 13:00 the members of «Oplot» Kharkiv organization get in the rear of protesters by swooping around Hrushevskoho from the Arsenal factory This organization later start fighting on the Russian side in Donbas. The Self-Defense counterattacks and chases away Oplot members. The "prisoners" have burst packets with nails fastened to them and traumatic weapons.
The situation in Mariyinka is inactive. An ambulance is called for the speaker of Verkhovna Rada Rybak allegedly because of heart problems. The opposition manages to register a draft of resolution concerning voting for the Constitution of 2004. However, no one is left to vote.
In the early 1.p.m. fifty soldiers of the «Berkut» attack from Orlyka street to get back the office. At the forefront the security officers with pump action guns are marching. They are followed by the Titushky with iron pipes.
ПAfter a brief confrontation the office of the Party of Regions gets under the control of the police. Protesters retreat to the intersection of Lypska and Instytutska.
13:20Another attack on the corner of Shovkovychna and Instytutska. The «Berkut» goes in a parade fashion, firing their «Forts». Reporter Anastasia Bereza cannot find proper words to describe it. She repeats the most shocking detail twice: «They shoot right into the crowd.» Each shot is accurate. Those who fall or stay back are violently beaten with clubs.
Around the same time a co-owner of the corporation «Industrial Union of Donbass» Serhiy Taruta calls Oleksandr Yanukovych. The latter is the eldest son of the President - the leader of the Donetsk «Young team» Viktor Yanukovych trusts him the most, delegating him more and more authority since 2012.
Taruta asks his Donetsk counterpart to convince his father about the inadmissibility of the force option.»Perhaps [Maidan] is our destiny,» - answers Yanukovych Junior. «This is our test. So we have to go through. We have to serve the country, to save it from these idiots»
13:30Protesters are pushed back to Instytutska, a part of them moving towards Maidan and a part toward Kriposnyy lane. Some more people are standing behind the corner of Shovkovychna. Reinforcement comes to the security forces from Verkhovna Rada.
13:43The «Berkut» finally takes control over the intersection of Shovkovychna and Instytutska. They form the "testudo" shape structure from their shields, blocking the passage through Instytutska toward Lypska (to Maidan) and Kriposnyy Lane (to the Mariyinskyi park). After 10 minutes they also have a water cannon in place.
Instytutska street was the only communication way in the government quarter which allowed the protesters to maneuver freely. Capturing the key intersection, the security officers divided the participants of the morning demonstration into two separate groups. The Self-Defense fighters, people most prepared for street clashes, are cut off from the Maidan.
~14:00About 14:00 there are clashes between the «Berkut» and the Self-Defense in the Kriposnyy lane. This small street connects possible escape routes for participants of the march - Klovsky descent and Hrushevskoho (towards Arsenal).
Around this time, a 57-year-old Volodymyr KISCHUK — an entrepreneur from Dymer (Kyiv region) stops responding by phone. His was killed with a shot in the head near Kriposnyy lane.
Then a 44-year-old security guard from Kyiv Serhiy SHAPOVAL, a fighter of the 21th Hundred of Maidan Self-Defense also died. Near the Kriposnyy lane he was shot with hunting canister shot, two pieces of lead pierced his stomach and heart.
Around the same time as Shapoval dies Ihor SERDYUK (aged 44) — an entrepreneur from Kremenchuk. He was building a barricade at the intersection of Kriposnyy lane and Instytutska to delay the breakthrough of security forces. Serdyuk was shot in the face with hunting canister shot.
After resting for a while, «Titushky» organized into combat groups and covered by the Internal Troops, to the repeating song «Svyashchennaya Voyna» («Sacred War») attack the Self-Defense in Mariyinka.
The forces are obviously unequal, the perimeter is broken and narrowing. Then the Internal Troops get in the rear of the Self-Defense from Hrushevskoho, blocking the only way to retreat.
Internal Troops soldiers, mostly young regular soldiers, are using their clubs as enthusiastically as the «Berkut» did. Titushky move behind them and brutally batter fallen people with stones and pipes.
A fighter of the 3rd hundred Miroslav Gai later told the Texty newspaper in his interview that in those moments he clearly understood: an agreement with the government failed. Do you want to survive? Be ready to kill those who seek to kill you.
14:15About 50 Self-Defense fighters left in Mariyinka were pressed to the long grey «stalinka» house on the edge of the park on Hrushevskoho. Some of them managed to get inside and hide in the apartments of people living there.
The less lucky were left to lie outside the house and on the brick paths of the park. Puddles of blood were clearly visible on the February snow. Those still conscious were taken to the camp of Antimaidan.
«Like two different poles, we are opposed in everything — a song is heard over the battlefield. — For light and peace we fight and they — for the kingdom of darkness!»
Probably then the 49-year-old Andriy KORCHAK, a construction worker from Boryslav (Lviv Region), got fatally wounded. A «dozen leader» (desyatnyk) of the 3rd Hundred of the Self-Defense was ruthlessly beaten and maimed in Mariyinskyi park.
The damage to the chest caused chronic ischemic heart disease, and Korchak died in hospital, where he was taken by an unidentified volunteer in his Lada car. At 15:20 the protester was dead.
14:30The correspondent of «Ukrayinska Pravda» reports that one of the protesters under the «Berkut» fire started and drove «in an unknown direction», one of the police trucks that blocked Hrushevskoho at the corner of the Kriposnyy lane.
This protester was Leonid Bibik who just escaped from a violent clash in Mariyinka. With the police GAZ he planned to clear the escape routes for demonstrators through the barriers of the «Berkut» along Kriposnyy lane to Instytutska to join the other protesters.
Chasing away the bewildered security officers, Bibik drives along the lane to the intersection with Instytutska — only to see that the way to Maidan is already blocked by the «Berkut». He somehow manages to turn and drive back to Kriposnyy lane when two police officers shoot him in the head with their nonlethal pistols at a point blank distance.
Losing consciousness, Bibik still presses the accelerator pedal and breaks to Hrushevskoho. At that moment a 44-year-old Serhiy Didych, a dozen leader of the Self-Defense and the Head of the local Svoboda party organization in one of the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk runs into the street and gets under the wheels of the car. Didych was beaten by the «Berkut» officers, so one of them was chasing him and nearly got under the wheels too.
The Self-Defense dozen leader died on the spot — from an open head injury.
After 1.5 years Bibik, who at that time served as ATO, was accused and immediately granted amnesty.
«The peaceful offensive» failed because «Titushky» and security officers in the government quarter got ready to kill.
At least some of them will not hesitate to press the trigger or smash the skull of another person with an iron pipe. This was not true for the intellectuals and people from rural regions who participated in Maidan Self-Defense, who attached on the barricades near the House of Trade Unions a poster with a rhetorical appeal to their opponents, «TO KILL AND THEN LIVE WITH IT?»
So the authorities again raised the stakes in the confrontation: «We are ready not only to kill and maim, but to do it systematically, by dozens. And you?»
The determination of authorities to use violence yielded impressive results. Subsequently, in a few hours Maidan lost its core defenders and all territorial achievements of the past 90 days, shrinking down to a small area around the stage.
In the afternoon on February 18, few outside observers would doubt that the protest would last for only several hours. «That's the end», people wrote in social networks in despair.
And at the moment of greatest triumph of the armed and trained policemen over defenseless civilians Maidan accepts the price.
According to the investigators of the GPU, from about 2 p.m. that day, the gunshot wounds of officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were first documented.
So on the 90-th day of protest Maidan takes up arms, while some protesters were shot with firearms a month ago.
The corner of Sadova and Instytutska is still controlled by the demonstrators. They burn tires of «KamAZ» trucks and exchange stone throwing with the Internal Troops standing in line.
14:56The first reports of dead protesters. Lesya Orobets: «Three dead bodies in the House of Officers. They are our people. 7 more people are dying. The ambulance vehicles are blocked!!!» Doctor Olga Bogomolets confirms the death of three protesters.
The «Party of Regions» invites Turchynov to negotiations with Yanukovych. The group of negotiators gets on foot to the Presidential Administration through the barricades, fire and smoke. On some blocked streets violent clashes continue.
After five minutes’ hysterical debate with swearing and threats Yanukovych agrees to a compromise: MIA stops shooting and maiming, and protesters return to Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Turchynov calls to the Self-Defense commanders reporting about another cessation of hostilities.
Two bodies in the House of Officers are Kischuk and Didych. The third is Serhiy SHAPOVAL.
According to the General Prosecutor Office investigators, Kharkiv «Berkut» officer Oleksandr Belov was probably involved in the murder of Kischuk, Shapoval and Serdyuk. Traces of lead were found in the barrel of his «Fort».
«FORT-500» is a smoothbore pump action shotgun produced in Ukraine, which was used by «Berkut».
After the murders on January 22 the MIA always named this weapon the «specialized means to fire non-lethal ammunition.» This meant the rubber — in the MIA terminology «elastic» - bullets and canister shot (a large canister shot of 0.5-1 cm), placed in the 12-gauge cartridges.
MIA does not add that the 12 mm gauge is standard for smoothbore guns. Their cartridges may use many types of ammunition. For example, hunting ammunition with lead bullet or canister.
In November 2016 the Judge of the Kyiv Court of Appeal Valeriy Lashkevych released Belov from detention, changing a preventive measure to the «night home arrest».
15:05The demonstrators retreating from the government quarter through Hrushevskoho street are trying to build a barricade using buses near the Arsenalna metro station (opposite the polyclinic at 2 Mazepa street). The attempt is unsuccessful, as the «Berkut» pushed them to the Slava square.
15:10«Titushky» violently attack the house at Hrushevskoho 9 (near the Mariyinskyi Park), where the surviving Self-Defense fighters are hiding. They search through staircases and attics, try to break into the apartments. The protesters that get caught are brutally beaten. The prisoners are bound and taken to Antimaidan camp.
But the 26-year-old Artem MAZUR, a security guard from Khmelnytskyi and a fighter of the 15th Hundred of the Self-Defense could not see this, because he was in a coma after Yanukovych supporters of in Mariyinskyi Park broke his skull. He died in hospital in early March, the column "cause of death" in his medical record stated «open craniocerebral trauma».
The Self-Defense was crushed. Those who survived and were not afraid tried to get to Maidan. The information about the cessation of hostilities only confused people.
About 4 p.m. The «Berkut» backed up by water cannons and «Titushky» again attacked at the intersection Shovkovychna-Instytutska, this time from three sides. They drove people towards Maidan, pelting them with stones and «Molotov cocktails».
The «Berkut» knocks demonstrators down with clubs and kicks, «Titushky» smash them with iron pipes.
Yanukovych is not answering Turchynov’s calls from Verkhovna Rada. However, Turchynov manages to reach the Head of Presidential Administration Andriy Klyuyev, who is considered one of the masterminds of the November 30 breakup.
One of the victims on Instytutska was a 82-year-old Ivan NAKONECHNY from Kyiv, the retired Navy officer, the oldest of the Hundred of Heaven. His skull was crushed by a «metal object», and three weeks later he died in the hospital.
Another senior protester, a 72-year-old man from Kyiv Anatoliy NECHYPORENKO, who worked as a guard at garage cooperative, could not escape from Titushky.
He also fell into a coma after a blow to the head getting a closed craniocerebral trauma and a depressed fracture of the skull. Nechyporenko died in hospital in early April.
When he could not reach Yanukovych by phone, Turchynov called Klyuyev, and informed about the agreement with Yanukovych.
«THIS IS WAR — answers the Head of the Presidential Administration to Turchynov concerning his accusations about the attack of the security forces during the cessation of hostilities — And during war all means will do.»
The Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs put forward an ultimatum to the opposition - «stop the confrontation» [i.e. leave Maidan] until 18:00.
16:06the «Berkut» attack a barricade on the top of Instytutska near Khreschatyk metro station. The doors of the upper station close.
16.07... because according to the decision of the Head of Kyiv City State Administration the Kyiv metro stopped its operation for the first time over the 53 years of its existence. At all stations and in all trains passengers are asked to leave the metro.
16:10Internal Troops quickly break through the barricades on Hrushevskoho and go to Yevropeyska Square. They dismantle some of the legendary barricades, expanding the way — for armored vehicles, as it turned out later.
Soon concrete blocks would be brought there blocking Hrushevskoho with ultra-strong barricades or a checkpoint.
Protesters retreat to the barricade at Khreschatyk, near the House of Trade Unions. The poster asking «To kill, and then live with it?» has already disappeared - it is clear that the government wants the extermination war rather than talking. Barricades are still decorated with another appeal: «Please understand: we ARE SICK OF IT!»
The Internal Troops soldiers at Hrushevskoho are guarding the concrete blocks they have mounted. They also write appeals on their barricade. But they were not appeals to protesters. They do not address the outside world at all.
The inscriptions are made in black marker on the BACK of the concrete fortification. They are addressed to somebody somewhere inside the perimeter.
«Give us GUNS, — ask the black letters. — ... A complete freedom of law enforcement».
16:18Protesters again occupy the building of the Kyiv City State Administration.
16:20the «Berkut» takes the top barricade at Instytutska (near the Khreschatyk metro station). A terrible stampede occurs, people start suffocating.
A barricade built of sacks filled with snow had only one narrow passage, surrounded by barbed wire. This idea of rebel engineers almost led to a mass tragedy.
Escaping from the «Berkut» in panic, dozens of demonstrators poured into the narrow passage so intensely that they got squeezed. Compressed and trapped, pressed against each other, they could not move, and the «Berkut» walked on top of the heap of human bodies, mercilessly hitting them with sticks.
Some «Berkut» officers, on the contrary, were saving lives, pulling suffocating people from the heap of bodies and protecting them from their brutal colleagues. If not for the humanism of these officers, there would be much more victims.
When the human heap dissolved, the bodies of a man and a woman were left lying the barricades. They were a power engineer from Brovary Antonina DVORYANETS (aged 61) and a 53-year-old Self-Defense fighter Zurab HURTSIYA from Kirovograd.
They both died of acute heart failure. Obviously, it was caused by the pressure and stress
Another protester, a man from Zhytomyr, Yakiv ZAYKO (aged 73), a deputy of the I-st convocation of Verkhovna Rada, had a heart attack. According to investigators, it was not on the Instytutska street as it was stated in most sources. A former member of parliament died near the Teatralna metro stations, where there were no clashes. No signs of violent death or beating were found on his body.
There are several hundreds of Internal Troops on Yevropeyska Square. They are encircling the passages to the Ukrainian House.
16:37The «Berkut» from the Instytutska Street sieges the spot near the Zhovtnevyy Palace — on February 20 the gunners in black uniforms with yellow shoulder bands will shoot Kalashnikov automatic rifles from there, while currently the Internal Troops are getting ready for battle on this place.
The frontline on the Zhovtnevyy Palace slopes is occupied by the Internal Troops elite — Tiger special operations regiment from the Crimea. Back in the morning they participated in clearing the Mariyinsky Park and then got to the Zhovtnevyy Palace via Instytutska Street, following the «Berkut» units.
This place is already familiar to the Internal Troops staff: their unit was the one which assisted «Berkut» in storming the Instytutska Street on Dec. 11. The «Tigers» continue to line up near the palace when they have first victims injured by the gunfire.
16:4516:45 — having taken control over the terrace over the Globus Trade Center, the «Berkut» staff starts hurling ignition liquid bottles far towards Maidan direction. Several tents are set on fire.
The lower barricade on the Instytutska, which withstood the December 11 assault, is lost in a few minutes. The «Berkut» forces its defenders to retreat, overwhelming them with concussion grenades from the pedestrian bridge over the barricade. However, taking this barricade still did not grant them open access to the Maidan.
For the first time during the three months of the protest the regime forces burst directly onto Maidan.
The demonstrators manage to impede the attack, building fires from the materials available at hand along the new defense line — from the Independence monument to the barricade near the House of Trade Unions.
16:50Internal Troops start storming the Ukrainian House.
17:00BBC correspondent says: «Some persons brought a stretcher with a decapitated body of a protester past the Verkhovna Rada building».
This piece of news together with 10 seconds’ footage will sparkle lots of rumors about abhorrent cruelty of the police and the Antimaidan among the revolutionary masses.
There will appear «eyewitnesses» who saw the «Berkut» and «Titushki» to sadistically decapitate the protesters alive. There will be talks about dozens of people tortured to death and missing.
The investigation turns down these rumors. The person on the stretcher was identified — it is a Maidan protester from Western Ukraine. He was not dead, albeit with a bandaged head. He will survive those terrible days and return home.
17:10Opposition MPs release from the Antimaidan camp the participants of the «Peaceful Advance» captured after the battle in Mariyinskyi Park. There were 40 injured demonstration participants, «among them 23 were severely injured». Antimaidan medical workers provided first aid to all of them.
17:15Internal Troops seized the Ukrainian House and dismounted feeble fences on the crossroads of Khreschatyk and Triokhsvyatytelska. Their troops line up on Khreschatyk, readying for the final storm.
And then they get under targeted gunfire.
On Khreschatyk, opposite building No.12, two soldiers of the capital garrison of the Internal Troops were shot. These are conscripts called up from Chenihiv — Maksym TRETYAK and Ivan TEPLIUK, both aged 20. They were shot in the neck and head by the bullets from the same Makarov handgun.
In the three months of the protest these are the first violent deaths of the law enforcement officers in Kyiv. 28 days passed since the murder of Nihoyan and Zhyznevskyy.
At the moment of the death of Interior Troops servicemen the Maidan protesters have already at least 10 casualties in just half a day. Seven out of these ten were murdered intentionally: three have been shot (Kishchuk, Shapoval, Serdiuk), another four were battered until they fell into a coma (Korchak, Mazur, Nakonechnyy, Nechyporenko).
In a week the body of another participant of the «peaceful march», Viktor PROKHORCHUK (aged 35), from Zhytomyr, who disappeared on February 18, will be found in the city mortuary. According to the doctors, the self-defense fighter was brought there already dead, the corpse with a slit throat was found «in one of the Khreschatyk yards» near Maidan. Currently neither we nor the investigation managed to get to know where and when Viktor was killed.
The sun sets at half past five. Night falls over Kyiv.
The number of victims will double even before the dawn.
Many people leave Maidan, but even more come there despite the announced intentions to forcefully disperse the protest and the news about casualties. About 20 thousand of protesters of different social strata risk their life, health and freedom in the center of Kyiv.
The fourth store in the House of Trade Unions is packed with wounded people, including those severely injured. They are afraid to go to hospitals, medics suture the wounds under field conditions.
The police announces the launch of the «anti-terrorist operation» via loudspeakers. Nobody uses ATO abbreviation.
~18:40About 18:40 the hunting bullet fired from .12 smoothbore rifle pierces the neck of Senior Lieutenant Vitaliy HONCHAROV from the military unit No. 4125. This is the abovementioned Crimean special ops regiment of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Affairs, «Tiger».
Honcharov, originating from Kharkiv oblast, was the chief of squadron in the 3-rd Battalion of this regiment. The fiancée awaited for the 24-old officer in the Crimea, they planned to get married right after the completion of his redeployment to Kyiv. The Senior Lieutenant would live for another several minutes, asking his comrades in astonishment «Guys, what happened to me?»
The «Tiger» servicemen continue standing on the slopes of the hill over Zhovtnevyy palace, near the Great Famine memorial cross. They have a good overview of everything which is going on below them.
19:44the «Berkut» and Internal Troops charge from the Yevropeyska Square backed up by two armored vehicles.
AV’s jam into the barricade, sweeping a part of the demonstrators from it, but are immediately set on fire by dozens of Molotov cocktails.
19:30 — 20:00Between 19:30 and 20:00 contact is lost with Valeriy BREZDENIUK (aged 50) — entrepreneur and painter from Zhmerynka, who comes to Maidan weekly. At this day no third or second class sleeper tickets to Kyiv were available, and Valeriy bought a first class ticket for UAH 600. His body with gunfire wounds will be found in a mortuary in a few days.
19:40the software developer, activist of the Maidan IT group Serhiy BONDAREV (aged 32) from Kramatorsk calls his wife for the last time. During the next hour he will get four gunfire (grapeshot) wounds, defending a barricade near the House of Trade Unions from the police. His wife was at the 7-th month of pregnancy when Serhiy was killed.
Possibly during the same assault Oleksandr PLEKHANOV (aged 22),student of Kyiv National Construction and Architecture University, is shot in the head. He went to Maidan after the beatings of November 30. He will die in the hospital in a few hours. Next day he should have obtained his Bachelor diploma.
20:00After 20:00 Maidan Medical Service volunteer Vasyl PROKHORSKY (aged 33) — a former policeman, currently a trade equipment electric engineer and an extramural student of a law faculty, cannot be reached by phone anymore. Vasyl, originating from the Chernihiv oblast, is believed to be killed near the lower barricade on Instytutska Street, having been shot in the back of his head. The friends who received his body from the mortuary pointed out to the signs of heavy battering.
The «Tiger» special ops regiment of the Internal Troops continues standing on duty on the slope and loses another officer. About 20.00 Senior Lieutenant of the Internal Troops Dmytro VLASENKO (aged 32), political affairs officer of one of the squadrons, gets a perforating gunshot wound.
He was obviously shot from close distance — the grape hit the chest densely, damaging several important organs and the spine. The stabilizer from a hunting cartridge was found in Vlasenko’s wound canal.
20:30air temperature in Kyiv is +2 degrees Celsius. Two water cannons slowly destroy the barricade near the House of Trade Unions. The protesters, showered by the water jets, hurl stones and ignition liquid bottles at the vehicles.
21:00 — 22:00a grenade thrown by the by the police while battling over the barricade explodes near the head of a Ternopil region farmer, self-defense fighter Oleksandr KAPINOS (aged 29).
As well as the Senior Lieutenant Honcharov, Oleksandr Kapinos was planning to get married right after having returned from Kyiv, «After the victory», he said.
The explosion causes an open head injury to Oleksandr. On February 19, at dawn, he dies in the hospital after a 4-hours surgery. He remained conscious till the last minute.
People keep moving to Maidan from Mykhailivska Street, carrying tires, petrol, food.
21:05Near the flower clock on the Instytutska Street another Crimean law enforcement officer dies — senior warrant officer Andriy FEDIUKIN from the local «Berkut» battalion. He is aged 42, and had been serving in the «Berkut» for 20 years. He would have been eligible for retirement in only 3 years. He had two sons in Feodosiya, aged 14 and 10.
A hunting bullet from a smoothbore rifle was removed from his chest.
21:20 — 22:00Between 21:20 and 22:00 a vehicle repair engineer from Poltava oblast, Andriy CHERNENKO (aged 35) is shot through the chest. Chernenko has just arrived to Maidan. He and his wife are convinced: «If there are plenty of people, the government will not dare bloodshed».
Andriy died in the hospital No. 17 on the same day with numerous internal organ injuries.
21:30 — 22:00Another attack of the police from Yevropeyska Square is repealed. Dozens of wounded people, mainly injured by grenade shards, are on barricades.
One of them is a Kyiv railway worker Viktor ORLENKO (aged 52). A veteran of the Afghan war, he promised his wife that he would go to Maidan only if the shooting begins. In the evening of February 18 he was at barricades together with his son.
Trying to evacuate his shell-shocked son from under the fire Orlenko is severely wounded by gunfire (open perforating injury of the head, multiple metal shards in the brain, skull bones fractures). After 8-hour surgery he falls into a coma, from which he would awake after two months in a German clinic. He died in Kyiv in June 2015 because of the heart failure.
At the same time «near the Globus Trade Center building» at the Instytutska Street bsenior sergeant of the police Vasyl BULITKA from Kyiv «Berkut» regiment, a native of Chernihiv region, dies. The 27-years-old sergeant is shot through the head. A humble necrology on the MIA website says «A son, a husband and a father standing on guard of the peace of Ukrainian citizens has departed».
22:00 — 22:30Between 22:00 and 22:30 warrant officer Oleksiy IVANENKO — Director of the Orchestra of the 3005 Internal Troops unit, is killed. He was shot in the neck at the Instytutska Square, «near the underground pass to the Maidan Nezalezhnosti underground station».
The 36-years-old concert director had three daughters, the youngest of them aged 4 months. Shortly before the death he also adopted two children of his deceased sister.
22:00 — 23:00Between 22:00 and 23:00 the highest ranking among the police officers killed at Maidan, Major Vitaliy ZAKHARCHENKO (aged 31) receives a perforation bullet wound to the stomach. He was also from Kharkiv, a staff officer of the Separate Slobozhanska Brigade of the Interior Troops of the Ministry of Interior Affairs (now 5-th Brigade of the National Guard). He was a full namesake — but not a relative! — of the then-Minister of Interior Affairs.
He died in two weeks at a hospital. He was not shot from a smoothbore weapon, as most of other police officers. The investigation considers that the Major was hit by 5,45 x 39 mm bullet (used in АК-74 automatic gun, Saiga hunting rifle, etc.).
~22:30About 22:30 — a Kyiv native Volodymyr KULCHYTSKYY (aged 64) is killed at the barricade near the House of Trade Unions right before the eyes of his own son. The retired person was killed by the hunting grape — one piece of lead pierced his heart, the other hit the stomach.
~23:00About 23:00 a marine veteran, master of sports Viktor SHVETS (aged 58) calls his wife from Maidan. He repeats in a strange voice several times «I am fine». Obviously, he had already been mortally wounded at that time.
As many military veterans, Shvets headed off to the Maidan in a spontaneous impulse, having seen the news of the hostilities in the governmental quarter. «They shoot kids while we stay safe at home». His death was recorded about 1:00 on Feb. 19. He was wounded at least two times by 9 mm hunting bullets from a pump-action rifle.
Approximately at 23:00 the contact is lost with Volodymyr BOYKIV — a construction worker aged 59. His last words over the phone were «I am here, near water cannons».
Boykiv will be found in the mortuary with 3 gunshot wounds — to the head, the spine and the liver.
Shortly before the midnight at the crossroads of Velyka Zhytomyrska and Volodymyrska Streets a group of «Titushky» appears wearing the identical Soviet-style helmets, wielding bats and shields. Based on the government’s plans disclosed later the «Titushky» had to assault the demonstrators who would run from Maidan after mop-up operation.
23:45A new attempt of the «Berkut» attack from the Yevropeyska Square covered up by a water cannon, again failed.
There are about 7 thousand of police and 30 thousand of demonstrators on Maidan and around it..
The police take regular attack attempts, shooting and grenade hurling continues all night.
On the last minutes of this terrible day Vitaliy VASILTSOV (aged 36) is killed. He was a decorative gardening master from Bila Tserkva who brought medicines for a first aid point in the Mykhailivsky Cathedral. He left his car near Yevropeyska Square and managed to swiftly escape the «Berkut» on his way to the cathedral.
On the beginning of Velyka Zhytomyrska Street he was shot, possibly by the abovementioned «Titushky» from Volodymyrska Street.
The murder of Vasiltsov was accidentally filmed by one of the protesters on the cell phone camera. This is the first footage to record a death on Maidan — and the country watched in horror what a tiny bullet could do to a vigorous young person.
The watchers who recognized the site of the tragedy are especially shocked. A peaceful unarmed citizen is shot to death right before the windows of the capital department of the Ministry of Interior Affairs.
Between 23:45 and 00:10 Yuriy SYDORCHUK (aged 53) gets a gunshot wound to the head. He is evacuated from near the House of Trade Unions by an ambulance vehicle. It is unknown whether the vehicle was called for him or somebody other.
The House of Trade Unions is not set on fire yet. The only access for ambulance vehicles is along the Mykhailivska Street running down to Maidan from the namesake square.
Sydorchuk is unconscious; a bandage around his head is soaked with blood. The ambulance vehicle carries him to the Tatarka district, in the Institute of Neurosurgery of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. The shortest route is 5 km long: Mykhailivska — Velyka Zhytomyrska — Lvivska Square and then past the Lukyanivka district.
Perhaps, the ambulance drew ahead of the taxi in which the journalist of the pro-Russia Vesti paper Vyacheslav VEREMIY (aged 33) goes home. It was his first day at work after a long sick leave (on January 19 he had a shard trauma of the eye after a concussion grenade explosion at Hrushevskoho Street).
00:15at the crossroads of Velyka Zhytomyrska and Volodymyrska Street Veremiy tries to record a crowd of «Titushky» from the taxi window. The journalist is dragged out of the car, clubbed with bats, shot in the chest and left to bleed to death.
00:20the law enforcement staff occupies upper floors of the House of Trade Unions (the hospital and the Maidan headquarters are located here).
00:30approximate start of fire in the House of Trade Unions.
Meanwhile, the wounded Sydorchuk is brought to the Institute of Neurosurgery. He is enrolled on the basis of the sole document which he always carried with him, the military service record book, an old-fashioned red-covered Soviet one. His daughter told he had been visiting the comrades from the «Afghan Hundred» (former soldiers who served in Afghanistan).
Sydorchuk will never wake up from the coma. He died in June of the same year.
Veremiy died in a few hours, at 6 a.m. in the morning, February 19.
00:45The Interfax correspondent informs: a young protester on Maidan has his arm ripped off by a powerful blast of a grenade thrown by the police».
These news are about the 19-years-old Kyivan Dmytro MAKSYMOV — a member of the youth Deaflympics wrestling team, the prize-winner of many international competitions. The official cause of death was stated as «explosion trauma».
According to an eyewitness, Dmytro died near the House of Trade Unions when the protesters attempted to attack one of the water cannons. The police retaliated with battle grenades — «round, grey ones, with a distinctive band around them». The description allows to suggest these were RGN or RGD-5.
The investigation’s forensic examinations dismiss this version. Most plausibly, the same «enhanced humanitarian aid» imported in January with the Russian Ministry of Interior supporting documents caused lethal traumas to Dmytro Maksymov (in addition to the arm, his head and chest were severely damaged).
According to the eyewitnesses, similarly-looking grenades («round-shaped, with a band») were used by the police during the day in Mariyinskyi Park.
01:00Fire in the House of Trade Unions is expanding. 6th-7th floors are on fire (one of the persons who died there, Klitynsky by surname, was last seen right on the 7-th floor).
The injured people are being evacuated. The new hospital is being deployed in the refectory of Mykhailivskyi cathedral.
Finally all the injured persons will be evacuated from the hospital, but not all of them survive.
Yuriy PASKHALIN (aged 30), from Cherkasy oblast, was working in Kyiv as a warehouse manager. He used to be a weightlifter, trainee of the Olympic Reserve School in Kharkiv. He was already leaving Maidan when he heard about the protest break-up in the governmental quarter and decided to go back.
He got a gunshot wound, possibly near the House of Trade Unions. He was taken to hospital shortly before its evacuation, and died immediately after arriving to the hospital.
01:10The protesters reinforce a feeble barricade on the Mykhailivska Square to get protected from «Titushky».
02:00About 2:00 on Khreschatyk near the burning House of Trade Unions senior sergeant of the police forces Serhiy TSVIHUN from Zaporizhya unit of the «Berkut» forces died. The bullet passed through the chest of the 23-years-old «Berkut» officer.
Akin to Dmytro Maksymov lacerated by a combat grenade, Tsvihun was also a professional Judo wrestler. He had an excellent graduation mark from the airborne units training courses of the Military Forces of Ukraine, but then changed the army for the «Berkut» unit, where his older brother was already serving. Tsvihun died in his brother’s arms.
02:51The entire building is ablaze. The Ministry of Emergency staff evacuated more than 30 persons from the House of Trade Unions, four of them were evacuated using a movable lift.
There were rumors about dozens of burned people, but the remnants of only two bodies were discovered after the fire. These are Volodymyr TOPIY (aged 58) from Lviv oblast and a Podillyan Oleksandr KLITYNSKYI (aged 25), who died while helping to evacuate the hospital.
Kltynskyi was identified by DNA in June 2014. Before this he was an Unknown Maidan Protester and was buried at the Ascold Grave in this status.
03:00The barricade on Khreschatyk is finally demolished.
The new border is along a fire barricade from the House of Trade Unions to the Independence Monument.
People with shields are on the frontlines, there is only fire between them and the «Berkut».
The shield bearers cover people who bring everything that can burn to feed the fires. They even throw the tents there.
03:30While the scene prays for the unity of Ukrainian people, the «Berkut» attacks from Instytutska Square. Explosions thunder near the Independence Monument, powerful clashes start again.
Some of the «Berkut» staff make their way through the fire. People hesitate for a minute, someone starts fleeing. Several activists pick up stones and run towards the «Berkut» forces, shouting, «Do not turn your backs on them! Face them straight, all together, have no fear!». The panic abates, the protesters return to their battle positions.
The Special Forces of the Ministry of Interior Affairs attack fiercely, some of them make their way as far as to the «Yolka» (huge New Year tree installed in the center of Maidan). This will be their greatest achievement in attempting to take the Maidan territory under control.
Maidan countercharges with sticks and stones. The «Berkut» forces, exhausted and apparently astounded at such a staunch defense, are fended off behind the fire belt, four of them are taken captive and already injured. The shouts from the scene «Do not kill the captives!» roll over the entire square.
04:00there are people with hunting rifles on Maidan. TEXTY editors watch one of them to make two shots from under the «Yolka» towards Globus trade center. Other shots flash from there.
5:00The tents between the Independence Monument and the Conservatoire catch fire, building up the blazing barricade around Maidan.
05:30The attackers are getting weary, the storming continues in a sluggish manner. The «Berkut» forces seem to have run short of concussion grenades.
The main square is blackened with soot, paved passways are partially disassembled. The water abundantly poured by the police water cannons is freezing in the chaotic straps of ice.
Early in the morning first buses from Lviv arrive to Kyiv. They are welcomed with applause.
The confrontation reinvigorated, while being positionary, with grenades, stones, shots.
Near the Independence Monument the «Berkut» forces mounted a water hose and shower the smoldering barricades and people holding the shields along the clash line.
More people come to Maidan than on the previous day. There are many Kyivans. They bring tires, petrol canisters, water, food. There are many intellectuals again.
Poor retired persons and richly-clad ladies bring everything that can burn and may be used for protection.
New barricades are being built in place of the smoldered ones. The Maidan protesters reinforce their positions.
~14:00Yanukovych’s — Video from the surveillance camera No. 7
The protesters take several new buildings on Maidan to deploy the headquarters and other units evacuated from the House of Trade Unions.
The Conservatoire is among these locations. According to the investigation, someone will open a targeted fire at the police on the next day, at dawn.
The February 20 events at the Instytutska square are well filmed. The police in black uniforms with yellow bands (a distinctive sign) were filmed by several dozens of cameras.
«The Black Uniforms» fire automatic weapons, not hiding from cameras and not targeting the operators, Sometimes they seem to be eager to get filmed in this drama.
On this day the Russian Federation starts the operation on the annexation of the Crimea. Russian medals «For the Return of the Crimea» bear the dates 20.02.2014 - 18.03.2014. The Russian troops without distinction signs invaded the Crimea on that day.
The enthusiasts from Talionis volunteer group carry out an impressive work synchronising all these videos. They allowed to identify the time of 47 wounds (almost all of them with the precision up to 1 second) from 49 lethal cases of that day.
04:42the security officers standing to the right of the Independence Monument, closer to the Conservatoire building, open fire. The kind of ammunition is unknown, only flashes from their guns are seen.
~5:30According to the results of investigation, the first combat shots were heard about to 5:30 that day. Shooting occurred from both sides.
Over the next three and a half hours (until 9:00-9:10) about 20 security officials at Maidan got gunshot wounds. They were shot from different weapons — rifles, hunting canister shot, pistols.
During the same time 10 protesters got gunshot wounds (not including the injuries from concussion grenades and traumatic ammunition shoot in the face).
07:00Since 7 a.m. may reports were appearing about «thousands of «Titushki» at Zaliznychne Shosse street (Vydubychi) and in the northern part of Podil.
Obviously, this refers to the ordinary participants of Antimaidan brought to Kyiv with four additional trains — two from Kharkiv, one from Donetsk, one from Kherson. According to Ukrzaliznytsia, these trains brought 4070 passengers to Petrivka and Kyiv-Moskovskyy freight stations and.
08:00About 8:00 «near the Monument of Independence on the Instytutska street» died a military serviceman from the 3033 military unit (patrol battalion of the Internal Troops in Zaporizhya Oblast), Serhiy SPICHAK (aged 34). A bullet passed through his left thigh, causing a massive bleeding.
Spichak dedicated half of his life to serving in Internal Troops. He was conscripted there immediately after school, for the compulsory military service. He swore an oath to the people of Ukraine back in the National Guard, prior to its being renamed as the Internal Troops.In 2015 a wall memorial was opened for him in his school (Berdyansk): «he died heroically during the performance of service and combat missions, with dedication, courage and devotion to the military oath»
08:20The «Berkut» using Molotov cocktail tried to set on fire the Conservatoire where the new first-aid station of Maidan was located.
08:30 — 09:00Between 8:30 and 9:00 an officer of the Chernihiv squadron of the «Berkut» Volodymyr ZUBOK (28 years) got a penetrating gunshot wound of the chest and abdomen. It happened near Instytutska street, «on the stairs at the Globus Trade Center».
The Chernihiv squadron was sent to Maidan on February 18. The next day Zubok was to be promoted to Ensign Officer. He died on February 20 from shock and blood loss.
The event which could mark the chronology of the mass shooting at Instytutska happened shortly before 9:00. We mean the sudden retreat of the police from the Maidan.
~08:53No later than on 8:53 cameras record the security officers leaving the positions they had captured with such an effort near the Monument of Independence.
Why did they retreat? This is one of the most important questions.
The police retreated in a more or less organized way to the pedestrian bridge at Instytutska, then they moved upwards to the Khreschatyk metro station exit to the government quarter. Individual protesters already reached the Monument of Independence.
Perhaps the representatives of the authorities were afraid of the shots. Or perhaps they just were very tired — at that time the Internal Troops and the «Berkut» had been exhaustibly fighting for two days. There was no one to replace them — the authorities gathered all assault forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Maidan, and the concussion grenades were running short.
Some of the police did not sleep at all over those three days. Others slept for only a few hours. They slept right there on the asphalt and granite, on their shields. The protesters had some kind of rotation — the buses from the regions regularly broke through the checkpoints of the road police to Maidan.
The Internal Troops also had little «ideological» motivation: people just dreamt about the end of that endless tour on duty. They wanted to survive and finally get home. Or at least to get to the bus of their platoon to sleep finally in a warm place.
08:55So begins the phase of events at Instytutska which Talionis named «the first breakthrough» in their synchronized video.
There is a critical mass of protesters who notice the retreat of the police from the Independence Monument (stele). The first few dozens of protesters launch an attack to seize the spot near the stele. Others follow them.
08:56 — 08:58Three outgoing calls from the personal phone of Yanukovich to the same Russian call recipient — +79037096326.
08:56One of the protesters gets a call from his brother near the stele they just seized. This protester is a lecturer at the Modern History Department at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv), Bohdan Solchanyk. He is busy and can't talk long.
«Stepan, I am on the frontline, says Bohdan, answering a call. — We are attacking.» And he rings off.
The first few dozens of protesters have already reached Instytutska and are under the pedestrian bridge. From the side of the Hotel Ukraina (former name — «Moscow») two water cannons appear — one grey, the other blue. The blue one, discharging water above people, starts watering people around the bridge.
08:58From the stage speakers an exclamation is heard for the first time: «Call a doctor! Call a doctor right now!» These are the words that over the next two hours will be heard most often at the central square of a European country.
08:58 — 09:02Between 8:58 and 9:02 Oleksandr BALIUK gets a fatal gunshot wound (lead canister shot).
08:59Yanukovych calls Medvedchuk from his personal phone. He reaches Medvedchuk.
ТOn Instytutska street under a pedestrian bridge directly opposite the blue water cannon Georgiy HARUTYUNYAN (aged 50) from Rivne gets a fatal gunshot wound. A small lead bullet of hunting canister shot went through his neck, leaving his three years’ old daughter Ashkhen an orphan.
09:00Due to the pressure from protesters the blue water cannon is starting to back up slowly. It does not stop watering, on the contrary, it lowers the jet to knock down those who are near. The grey water cannon starts operating, too.
According to the results of the investigation, around this time about 25 fighters of a special police squadron got out of the bus which was parked near the Zhovtnevyy Palace.
The unit came forward on the site. They wore stylish black uniforms without insignia. The officers were armed with AK-74 of 7.62 mm gauge. Each of the officers was wearing an identification sign — a yellow ribbon around the right sleeve.
A farmer Bohdan VAIDA (aged 48) from Lviv region was trying to keep on the side of the water cannons. He passed them to the right along the edge of Instytutska street. On 9:00:36 he got a fatal gunshot wound. After the bullet hit him, he got under the directed stream from the water jet.
Bohdan was collecting the autographs of Olympic Champions, and had a collection of about three thousand of them. For his hobby he received a medal from the International Olympic Committee. He took this award when he traveled to Maidan for the last time (apparently he planned to meet our Olympic Champions when they returned from the Winter Games in Sochi). After his death the medal was not found.
The bullet of 7.62 mm hit Vaida in the head, and his relative identified the body by the hands. This type of ammunition is normally used with the Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Until that moment the protesters were killed from smoothbore guns (mostly with canister shot). Vaida was the first protester shot with a bullet of 7.62 mm caliber fired from a rifle. Almost all subsequent fatal wounds that day the cause of which could be identified were caused by ammunition of that caliber.
About the same time Igor PECHENKO (43), a construction worker from Vyshgorod, was fatally wounded.
«He was shot three times: in the arm, chest and abdomen. The body was blue when we buried him. Then we found a hole under his left ear. It was a finishing shot. But it was not recorded in the medical examination document. They covered up the tracks of the police. They wrote that he had received three wounds,» the mother of the victim admitted in an interview.
Probably at this time Vitaliy SMOLENSKY (29) from Cherkasy region got two bullet wounds. The exact time and place of his death remain unknown. The hero's mother is convinced that her son was wounded near the bridge. According to the testimony of the fellow protesters, he died on the territory of the Mykhaylivskyy monastery from loss of blood. The medical certificate specified the shock and blood loss.
The regime and its Russian curators raise the stakes again.
From the scene loudspeakers shout: «Doctors urgently needed at the Monument to the Founders of Kyiv!!!»
From the scene loudspeakers shout: «Doctors urgently needed at the Monument to the Founders of Kyiv!!!» toldthat there was no order to retreat. The commanders required the Internal Troops to hold the defined line. But having seen the first breakthrough, he immediately commanded his battalion to retreat: «It was my own decision. Resistance would not make any sense. Because, say, 300 people cannot stand against two thousand».
Conversation between Yanukovych and Medvedchuk is over. It lasted 2 minutes and 24 seconds.
09:01The Professor of Lviv University Bohdan Solchanyk gets to the Zhovtnevyy Palace slope and stops under the pedestrian bridge over Instytutska square.
Bohdan is aged 28, however, he had already gained a fame as a scientist. While at school he won the first place on the all-Ukrainian school competition on history in Luhansk. He was completing an Associate PhD paper on the electoral practices in Ukraine in 1960-2000. He was planning to defend the thesis in Warsaw University.
09:03«The Black Uniforms» with yellow armbands, carrying automatic rifles, scattered at the right (if we look from below, from Maidan) side of the Zhovtnevyy Palace. Some of them stood close to the building, others were closer to Instytutska Street, on the bitumen-paved exit driveway an on the slopes. They took battle positions
A constant stream of the Internal Troops soldiers is running between these static figures. The Internal Troops servicemen swiftly run along the bitumen-paved driveway from the Zhovtnevyy Palace to the governmental quarter — this driveway is joined to Instytutska street opposite to Khreschatyk metro station, at the crossroads with Olhynska Street. PAZ buses typically used by the police turn around and immediately head to the exit too.
At times all this really resembles flight. At the background of the Internal Troop’ dramatic retreat, the Black Uniform gunners with yellow armbands looks quite resolute and consolidated.
9:04A large group of protesters starts moving from under the pedestrian bridge to Instytutska Square. They build a wall of shields, hide behind trash containers and fragments of fences. Bohdan Solchanyk, having crossed Instytutska Street, in now on the right flank of this group.
10 years ago, when he was a student, Solchanyk had already visited the revolutionary Maidan. He actively participated in the Chorna Pora, a movement whose contribution to the victory of the Orange Revolution was quite significant. The Pora activists rejected the force as a means of resistance. They opted only for peaceful, non-violent resistance actions.
When Bohdan moves to the right flank of the Instytutska Square, a stick can be noticed in his hand — he seems to have found it on an old barricade under the pedestrian bridge.
09:05First protesters appear near the central entrance to Zhovtnevyy Palace. They already reached the Hotel Ukraina at Instytutska Street. They are building up a shield line on the right flank.
Black Uniforms with yellow bands are actively firing their AK automatic rifles towards the protesters.
09:05 — 09:10Between 9:05 and 9:10 on Khreschatyk another policeman is killed, not from the Internal Troops or the «Berkut». Between buildings No.14 and 17/11 Lieutenant Serhiy MYKHALOVYCH (aged 25) from the street patrol service of Kyiv Department of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, born in Konotop city in Sumy oblast, gets a perforating gunshot wound to the head.
09:06Bohdan Solchanyk continues moving up the Instytutska Street. He veers to the right and goes along the pedestrian brink.
He was easy-going, at his 28 he had lots of acquaintances all over the world. He was keen on cycling, football and mountain hiking, spoke several foreign languages. He was considered one of the most promising young historians, invited to international conferences, offered scholarships. The whole world was open to him.
On February 19, at noon, he leaned back from the PC screen in one of Lviv civil society organizations and said under his voice «I am going to Maidan». Others pretended not to hear it. They all clung to the screens with livestream from the soot-blackened Maidan where another attack was mustering.
«Do you understand they can kill you?», someone asked. «Do not exaggerate, the probability is very low», Bohdan smiles, adding, «Ultimately, it’s not the worst way to die».
Solchanyk arrives to Kyiv at 6 a.m. This is his fourth visit to Maidan.
09:07Maksym SHYMKO (aged 33), from Vinnytsya, is mortally wounded to the neck with a 7.62 mm bullet. He was also history enthusiast, albeit in its applied aspect, being a fan of historical reenactment.
Maksym was keen on medieval history. And during the first month of protests wore a knight’s helmet handmade by him to protect against the police clubs. When his mother asked about his future family plans, he said jokingly, «If I ever marry, I’ll marry only a Valkyrie». Valkyries are the maidens who brought the souls of warriors fallen in the battle to Valhalla.
end of «the first breakthrough». After Shumko’s death the protesters on Instytutska start retreating. At 9:07:47 Solchanyk also makes a first step backwards.
In summer 2013 he organized a piquet near the local department of the Ministry of interior against the police abuse of power in Vradiyivka. A footage of his speech was recorded: charismatic black hair and beard make the young professor resemble John Lennon, or probably Jesus Christ. One of the piquet participants shows a poster: «I am opposed to violence, but do I have other options?»
Now he looks strikingly different. His hair and beard are hidden under a black mountaineer helmet, he holds a shield and swings a heavy stick.
The shots clap around like dozens of whips.
09:08The video from the National Bank and Hotel Ukraina shows that the vehicles, mostly passenger buses, continue active movement along Instytutska street (apparently these are the police buses transporting the staff). The pass through the breach in an abandoned barricade near the upper exit from Khreschatyk metro station and hurry from Maidan in the depth of the governmental quarter.
Internal Troops staff from the Crimean «Tiger» regiment retreat on foot. They follow the same route they used to access Maidan, along Instytutska Street towards Mariyinsky Park and the Verkhovna Rada.
Within this period of time one of the black uniform gunners takes a position at a landing on th stairway leading from the right wing of Zhovtnevyy Palace to the pedestrian passway on the Instytutska street. His face is unmasked, he carried a distinctive backpack singling the shooter out from other yellow-banded men.
Experts of Talionis Group, who collect and research videos regarding the February 20 events, tracked the movement of this gunner, determining also the exact timing up to 1 second. In their opinion, he is Pavlo Abroskin from the 3-rd assault squad of the capital the «Berkut’ regiment.
They also pinned down all clearly visible shots Abroskin made. He seems to shoot in singles, as a professional gunner. The data of this reconstruction are also use in our infographics.
09:08:02A shot from Abroskin’s Kalashnikov automatic gun, the barrel is aimed approximately towards the part of Instytutska Street between Hotel Ukraina and Maidan. The data on the exact time of bullets hitting those who survived are not yet available. However, no mortal wounds recorded at this time.
09:08:14Three shots from Abroskin’s Kalashnikov gun, the barrel is pointed roughly at the same direction.
09:08:15At the same moment 7.62 bullet pierces the neck of Bohdan SOLCHANYK (aged 28), university teacher from Lviv, tearing his carotid artery.
Already mortally wounded, Bohdan will find the strength to walk another 28 meters. The other guys would carry him further. At 9:12 he died — at the very heart of Maidan, in the center of Khreschatyk.
Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak said that if Bohdan survived, foreign scientists would learn to pronounce his surname correctly. Professor Timothy Snyder, the most read of the world’s historians, mentions Solchanyk’s tragedy in his brilliant essay. His death would prompt hundreds of scientists of the world to understand the Maidan tragedy in a poignant and heartbreaking way.
His brother Stepan, with whom Bohdan had the last telephone conversation in his life, will head a Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc party list in Staryi Sambir district and become a city council deputy. At the end of the last year he yielded his mandate to protest against the fact that there albeit pretend to be some changes, they are far from sufficient.
On June 21 the prosecutors in the case of ex-«Berkut» staff publicized the results of forensic evaluation of two assault rifles used to kill the protesters, according to the investigation.
Based on the investigation data, these assault rifles were the service weapons of the ex-«Berkut» officers Oleksandr Zinchenko and Pavlo Abroskin.
According to the prosecutor Roman Psiuk, three Euromaidan participants were killed and two wounded with this weapon on February 20, 2014. In total 12 assault rifles are identified already.
Maidan protesters continue retreating along Instytutska Street under continued fire.
09:08:34Andriy SAYENKO (aged 51), electrician and entrepreneur from Fastiv (Kyiv oblast). The Maidan Self-Defense fighter was covering the retreat of protesters from Instytutska Street.
Video from the cameras on the National Bank: many people in the Internal Troops and «Berkut» uniforms are moving swiftly from Maidan up Instytutska Street.
A squad in black uniforms with yellow armbands is trying to drive the protesters from Zhovtnevyy Palace. They fire Kalashnikov automatic rifles, throw grenades.
09:10:11At the beginning of stairs leading down from Zhovtnevyy Palace (left stairway) Vitaliy KOTSIUBA (aged 31) from Lviv falls down with a gunshot wound. He was on Maidan for the second time, however, he did not plan to arrive. He was going to leave for Poland to work and was already on the border when he heard the news about Maidan storming and went to Kyiv instead.
09:10:37At the same place, on the beginning of the stairway, Oleksiy BRATUSHKA, from Sumy, aged 38, private entrepreneur (transportation provider) is mortally wounded with a 7.62 mm bullet. He went to Maidan on February 18, when he got to know about the massacre and the storming.
09:11Yanukovych is calling Medvedchuk again. In general, according to the available data, from December 2013 till February 2014 they had 54 phone calls.
The black uniform gunners move forward along the upper landing of the Zhovtnevyy palace. They keep their weapons ready and shoot a lot. The protesters pour down to the flower clock and Maidan.
09:11:55On the Zhovtnevyy Palace slope (near the pedestrian bridge) the railway machinist Bohdan ILKIV (aged 51) from Lviv is wounded. All death notices indicate an off-centered 7.62 bullet as a cause of death. The investigation considers that Ilkiv was shot with hunting grape-shot.
09:12Black gunners are already near the left (if we look from Instytutska Square) corner of the Zhovtnevyy Palace. They take under control a spot opposite the central entrance and the upper terrace in general. They are shooting at the crowd
09:13Internal Troops with shields run from behind the left corner of Zhovtnevyy Palace to the spot before the central entrance, some of them drag some possessions, possibly blankets or rucksacks.
09:15The gunners retreat.
09:15:50 — 09:16:05On the spot near the central entrance to Zhovtnevyy Palace senior sergeant Mykola SYMYSIUK (aged 27) from Kyiv Regiment of the «Berkut» was killed. At 8:30 he was still talking with his brother over the phone, and at 9:00 did not answer the calls. It was possibly due to being already deployed.
A Khmelnytskyy oblast native was serving in a «special squad within a special squad» - special squadron of the Kyiv Regiment of the «Berkut». Possibly it made the backbone of the «black squadron», the soldiers of which were clearing Instytutska Street with combat-type Kalashnikov assault rifles. The investigation had not found out yet whether it was a single unit or a motley crew of different special services. The lists of this squadron include also Abroskin, who would later, in the court, call the mass homicide in the center of Kyiv an «action movie».
Symysiuk died almost instantly, the bullet pierced the brain. One of the black soldiers leaning over the senior sergeant turns back and shows a specific gesture — palms crossed in front of the face.
Apparently, Mykola was going to throw a grenade on the slope in front of Zhovtnevyy Palace — at a certain moment his comrades scatter away from the body and this grenade blasts.
«No one could say something bad about this lad, - a district newspaper would write about Symysiuk’s burial. He was not tall, but became strong and sturdy. Coming home, he never lingered around, but always helped with the farming work, sowed, moved, hoed. He was worried about the parents’ well-being, looked forward to the future, and was going to get married. Everybody was sobbing aloud, and the mother became numb with grief».
There were three deaths in the next three minutes:
09:16:40 — 09:16:57Vasyl MOYSEY
09:16:59 — 09:17:50Vasyl AKSENIN
09:18:08 — 09:19:02Ivan TARASIUK
09:20On several videos a person with a weapon, apparently a smooth-bore shotgun, briefly appeared within the protesters’ ranks. A group of protesters is going up Instytutska Street from Maidan to Hotel Ukraina along the right pedestrian passway, and among them a tall bulky young man in a Soviet-style steel helmet and camouflage jacket (tiger-striped pattern, bluish «Berkut» hues) carried a hunting rifle.
09:21:35Waiting for a few seconds in a small greenery area near Hotel Ukraina the protesters continue climbing up Instytutska Street. Four of them carry shields, the fifth — a gun. They already went past the stairway to a hotel. Not more than 100 meters is left to the upper exit from the already closed Khreschatyk metro station.
Based on the available videos, till 9:22 all black uniform gunners with yellow armbands already went behind a half-ruined barricade opposite the exit from the metro to Instytutska Street (crossing with Olhynska Street). The investigation representatives call it «a snow barricade».
This is the same protesters-made fortification from show bags with a narrow pass where the stampede occurred about 16:00 on February 18, after which two bodies were found on the barricade with the cause of death registered as «heart failure».
This day and a half seemed like an eternity.
The center of the barricade is disassembled by the police to allow vehicles to pass. At the right side several meters up to the entrance to the metro were preserved. From the left side much more of the fortifications were left, albeit as chaotic debris of the snow, dirt, soot, half-charred planks, tires, rugs etc.
The cameras filming the crossroads of the Instytutska-Olhynska from the National Bank side allow us to see what is going on behind the barricade. People in black uniforms with yellow armbands line up along the snow fortification like at a firing position.
09:21:55Not more that 100 meters are left to the upper exit from Khreschatyk station when the vanguard group of 5 protesters stops. They look around hiding behind the row of shields set up on the pavement. Four people with shields are in the upper row, the fifth one, with a hunting gun, is behind them.
Ihor DMYTRIV (aged 30) from Subcarpathian region, holds the smallest shield, 100 per 59 cm, according to the standard for «special equipment — shock-proof aluminum shield «Fort-ShchPA». Other shield bearers have self-made equipment of plied wood.
Dmytriv was a lawyer. Recently he built a house in the country. He arrived to Maidan on February 19, in the morning. He took a taxi not to get late for a bus to Kyiv.
09:21:59A 7.62 mm bullet easily pierced the aluminum and hit Dmytro in the chest. The impact is so strong that it wrenched a holed-through shield from his hand. The bullet, perforating the lungs, threw Ihor two meters back, under a lightbox near the pavement. The wounded man turns to his side and grabs at the wound.
His brothers-in-arms seemingly fail to understand what happened. They do not turn around. They put the shields close and look forward. Behind them Ihor is lying on his side, bending and unbending knees.
09:22:07An armed man in the blue camouflage turns back to the wounded man. Suddenly he yanks his leg, like from a burn (another bullet may have hit nearly) and bolts back from a crouch start.
Lying on his side, Dmytriv shoves off the pavement, as if trying to make a step towards the row where he was standing a few seconds ago. But this move only makes the body turn around on a slippery surface. One more tug towards the comrades, and he crouches down on the pavement in exhaustion.
09:22:24«The hunter» runs to Hotel Ukraina and slows down to striding on a path along the hotel wall. This path is separated from Instytutska Street by a greenery spot from where he started his attack a couple of minutes ago.
At this moment «the hunter» passes by Andriy DYGDALOVYCH (aged 40), a construction specialist from Lviv district. Andriy follows a parallel line, by a pavement along Instytutska Street, in the opposite direction, towards the bullets.
Dygdalovych came to Kyiv three months ago. He arrived here to stand not for association with the EU, but rather for human dignity: «I want to tell the government that we won’t tolerate battering of our kids». He was organizing the security in the Maidan headquarters, contributing to the Self-Defense.
During all this period Dygdalovych had been at home twice, on Christmas and after getting injured at Hrushevskoho street. A traumatic missile hit him in the eye, destroying the sight by 80%. Andriy stayed in a Lviv hospital only a couple of days and returned to Kyiv, to his «Afghan Hundred».
09:22:32The wounded Ihor Dmytriv is lying in the same position — on his side, with bent legs and his head on the ground. He is shivering, pressing his hand against the wound. The brothers-in-arms finally pay attention to his condition.
Having got to the passage leading from Hotel Ukraina to the Instytutska Street, «the hunter» in blue camouflage slows down to usual walking speed. He firmly grabs at his rifle. At the pavement he turns left, to the descent leading to Maidan.
Andriy Dygdalovych continues walking up the street. He can be easily recognized by his athletic stature and almost 2 meters’ height. A huge wooden shield in his hands looks like a toy. His confident stare is that of a worldly-wise man used to make resolutions of his own and fulfill them.
His only weapons are a self-made shield («plywood») and an armored vest («tin vest»).
During the storm of December 11 Dygdalovych organized the defense. He stood in the first rank and was captured by the police during clashes. One of the police officers, who saw his cape with the words «Afghan veterans stand together with people» protected him from getting lynched.
09:22:3940 seconds passed since Ihor Dmytriv was shot. He does not move anymore, only the jacket on his back pouts and sags as he is struggling for breath.
His comrades seem to have no clue what happened, or they just are disoriented. Who would have known anything about Kalashnikov wounds and tactical medicine back then?
Andriy Dygdalovych covers the last several meters running.
He is actually too young to have been an Afghan war veteran. He joined the veteran hundred because he considered that there he would be able to act in the most efficient way. The Afghan war veterans accepted him.
09:22:42Andriy takes a decision in a few seconds. Glimpsing at the wounded Ihor, he turns around and waves his hand to call others. Another person with a self-made shield, big enough to be used as a stretcher, responds and starts running up the street.
For his actions on December 11 Dygdalovych was presented for an award, honorable sign of the headquarters «For the Defense of Maidan». The solemn awarding was planned for the morning of February 20.
«Do not disappear, - the friends reminded Andriy two hours before, when he entered the headquarters tent after the night duty. — Your award ceremony is soon». «Am I a hero? — Dygdalovych answered then. «I did not deserve it. But I will deserve it now». He stood up and went out.
And here he is, on the Instytutska Street, organizing the evacuation of the wounded Ihor Dmytriv. He makes energetic gestures, giving some instructions to the three shield bearers.
09:22:51A 7.62 bullet pierces a self-made armored vest and passes through the body.
«The hunter» in the blue camouflage did not run away. In a few minutes one of the cameras would once more capture a man with a rifle on a firing position.
09:22:58 — 09:26:53Nazar VOYTOVYCH (aged 17), student from Ternopil oblast. He is the youngest among those who died on Maidan. On February 19 after the lessons he was transferring the things collected for Maidan by bus and at the last moment decided to go himself. The bus arrived to Kyiv at 7.30 in the morning.
09:24:20 — 09:29:40Ivan BLYOK
09:24:48Serhiy BAYDIVSKY
09:25«Berkut» special units are retreating along the Instytutska Street to Olhynska. In some time the internal Troops soldiers would capitulate in large numbers.
09:26:31 — 09:26:53Andriy MOVCHAN
Serhiy KEMSKYI
For the last time he was at home on February 15-16. At that time he wrote his last poem:
«A free man stares up to the skies
With new ideas, creative, unbound,
We will break through the granite walls,
And only love will rule the world!»
Mykola DZIAVULSKYI
09:28:42Valeriy OPANASIUK
the last of the black uniform gunners hide behind the police barricade made of transport vehicles at the crossing of Olhynska and Instytutska Street.
09:29:21Anatoliy KORNIEIEV
09:29:27 — 09:29:35Serhiy BONDARUK (was evacuating a wounded man near Zhovtnevyy Palace)
09:29:29 — 09:29:38Ihor KOSTENKO
09:29:37Oleksandr SHCHERBANIUK
A correspondent of LIFE-NEWS, the channel which would soon become notorious in Ukraine for its false news about the war in Donbas, says to his operator, «Atsik, now you’ll film the corpses»
Eduard HRYNEYCH
09:43:12 — 09:43:45Oleh USHNEVYCH
09:43:36 — 09:43:53Anatoliy ZHALOVAHA
09:44:53Volodymyr ZHEREBNYY
09:46:22Roman VARENYTSIA
09:47:11Roman TOCHYN
09:48:57 — 09:48:58Yuriy PARASHCHUK
09:49:08Ihor TKACHUK
09:49:11 — 09:49:19Vladyslav ZUBENKO
09:54:53Ivan PANTELEYEV
09:54:36Ustym HOLODNIUK
09:56:28Roman HURYK. The youngest among the Hundred of Heaven.
09:56:38Yevhen KOTLIAR
10:07:15 — 10:07:33Mykola PANKIV
10:21:31 — 10:21:52Oleksandr TSARYOK
10:26:53Volodymyr CHAPLINSKYI
10:28:43Yosyp SHYLING
10:28:29Viktor CHMILENKO
11:28:54Leonid POLYANSKYI (at the entrance to a pedestrian bridge at the Globus Trade Center)
10:31:37Oleksandr KHRAPCHENKO
11:32 — 11:34one of radio amateurs on Maidan intercepts the talks of unknown snipers who shoot in series. He records a fragment on his iPhone.
— During the talk many shots clap on the background. They shoot in series, nervously. They apparently did not have prior combat organizational training — they find it difficult to follow the one who gives commands.
— Fire at «one». At «one». 3-second count!
— Go ahead, we’re ready!
— Three, two, one!
(four shots)
— Follow the order. Hold fire!!
(shots)
—Fire at 3-second count. Three, two, one, boom!
— Three, two, one!
(shots)
— Wait, wait, wait! Do not shoot so fast, fuck it!
The Russian «НТВ» correspondent Illya Lzhenin dictates a fake sync:
Series of assault rifle shots sound from the radicals’ side almost every second. They may seem the representatives of the police, but if we have a closer look, we can understand that the rebels only use the equipment of the captive «Berkut» police officers. The yellow band is the symbol of the so-called «Right Sector», one of the radical groups. However, the militant shoots… at the people fighting on the same side. There are also injured persons and casualties among the rebels but the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine explains that most of them are the victims of subversives who purposely shoot at their own comrades.
The shoots faded away, the black squadron disappeared in the governmental quarter. There are almost no defenders of the regime left.
16:10Vice Speaker of the Parliament Ruslan Koshulynskyy opens the session of the Verkhovna Rada. There is less than 225 MPs in the Parliament right now. Te parliamentary building remains encircled by the Internal Troops
16:45The President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych concluded the meeting with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Poland, France and Germany. The negotiations lasted about 6 hours. The Ministers left in a gloomy mood and refused to talk to the press.
Near the entrance to Zhovtnevyy Palace a long range bullet hits a Kyivan Volodymyr MELNYCHUK.He would die on the spot, in the arms of his wife Maria.
The most severely injured person of that day is Roman PYATKOVSKYY from Lviv oblast aged 31, whom a bullet pierced the spine. Volunteers and Israeli doctors will save Roman from death in a Kyiv hospital (spinal cord meningitis).
Pyatkovskyy would die at home in 3 years and 2 days, on February 22, 2017. A dozen and a half people would attend his burial. «Plyve kacha» («The duckling swims…», folk song, traditionally a funeral melody for the Hundred of Heaven) song did not play at the ceremony.
239 deputies are registered in the Parliament.
22:30Verkhovna Rada by its resolution condemned the use of force and prohibited to launch the anti-terrorist operation. The armed enforcement squads should leave Kyiv streets.
23:00Mass patrols of the Self-Defense and local citizens hold their duty all around the city.
The negotiations with the participation of Yanukovych, the opposition, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of France, Germany and Russia continue all night. The President threatens to drown Maidan in blood, while packing things in his residence.
21:25Yanukovych appears in Mezhygirya for the last time to control the handling of things loaded into cars during the last two days. Seems like he is not going to return to his residence anymore.— VIDEO FROM THE SURVEILLANCE CAMERA No.2
In Kharkiv the «Separatist Congress» is opened with a pompous ceremony. They expect to host a programmatic speech by Yanukovych, but the President fails to show up. He flees.
17:00Verkhovna Rada by 328 votes supported the resolution on appointment for May 25 of the extraordinary elections of the President of Ukraine in connection with the fact that Yanukovych «withdrew from the fulfillment of his constitutional duties».
In the evening Vakarchuk saves Shufrych from getting eventually lynched by the mob.Chanting «STAY HUMANE!»
In a year and a half Yanukovych would say he should command more people killed on Maidan: «My key mistake is that I did not dare to sign an order and announce the deployment of troops and martial law in Ukraine».
15 thousand of law enforcement officers took part in the events around Maidan, while only about a dozen provided more or less reliable evidence. They are not afraid of journalists or the court. They are afraid of their chiefs. If the key MIA staff makes a clear statement «We will employ only those who do not conceal crimes», it would help to increase the number of investigations», says officer Horbatiuk, chief of the investigation of crimes during the Revolution of Dignity.
P.S. 35 persons are condemned in cases regarding the crimes against Maidan activists, 152 persons are under trial, about 190 are under pre-trial investigation, according to the press secretary of the Prosecutor General. Some of the persons suspected of mass shootings are hiding on the territory of Russia.
Read more about the course of investigation and trial here
BIOGRAPHIES:
http://expres.ua/main/2014/03/07/103021-nebesna-sotnya-zhyttyevi-istoriyi-geroyiv-chast-3
Investigation by Sonya Koshkina «Maidan. A story untold» (published in 2015)
According to the data from the prosecutor's office, 114 people died during the Revolution of Dignity.
